


A Triple Life

by embarrassingresultofmyfreetime



Category: Milo Murphy's Law, Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Perry is doing his best, Plot Based, a lot of highkey PnF references lol sorry, i wrote this mostly in the style of the show, inspired by The Phineas and Ferb Effect, kind of slow burn, minor car crash warning but there are no injuries, mostly about Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Orton Mahlson, the bureau is organized by my own ideas since there isn't definative canon rn, yes this had ur ships they're just not super romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 05:29:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15901830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embarrassingresultofmyfreetime/pseuds/embarrassingresultofmyfreetime
Summary: Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Orton Mahlson are trying to figure out how to fulfill their destinies but when Doofenshmirtz invents the time machine ahead of schedule and offers to take Orton with him for writing inspiration, things don't exactly go to plan- to say the least.Things get confusing when the Bureau of Time Travel mistakes them for some of the rogue time thieves they've been hunting and even more complicated when the pair is captured by the time thieves themselves and learn that the whole problem might have been caused by their own miscommunication.Disclaimer: I don't own the show or the characters or anything. This was just something I wrote for fun and needless to say it got away from me





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after the events of the Phineas and Ferb Effect so spoiler warning
> 
> / = italics  
> Sorry but I wrote this on my phone and I don't think I'll get around to swapping them anytime soon.

The sound of a key and the handle of Doofenshmirtz's front door being turned went unnoticed as the scientist stared at the mass of papers he had accumulated in his time travel research thus far. They were spralled in an organization only known to the man himself, ranging from blue prints to books to some random research pages he had printed from the internet, all overlapping across the several decks he had pushed together around the single chair in which he sat.  
He was so caught up in his work that he barely noticed his favorite secret agent walk up to him. Perry passed under the nearest table easily and reached up to set one teal hand on the forearm of the distressed scientist.  
"Perry the Platypus!" Doofenshmirtz suddenly exclaimed in surprise.  
He nearly continued with something along his usual lines, but his nemesis days were behind them both and he hadn't planned a monolauge in a long while now. He was left with words caught on his tongue and a surprised expression on his face.  
Finally, he graped at something as his mind abruptly switched gears from time travel quantum mechanics back to his regular life. He often got caught up in things that way but he always found his way back eventually.  
"Shouldn't you be with your team? They must have found someone to replace me with by now." Heinz asked, pretending it wasn't still difficult to have left his team back at Owca after they had finally figured out how to work together so well. They had all parted on good terms; but after so many adventures together, he was still having a difficult time adjusting to a quiet life back home.  
Once they graduated to agents, many member of the team were assigned to nemeses of their own or sent on solo missions, but they still worked together on assignments when they were needed.  
Sure they took out crime syndicates and saved the planet from dangerous weapons- but most of all Heinz missed the little things. He missed Karen the Cat's ability to go 0 to 60 and save the team with an amazing come back against the enemy. He missed Maggie's quips and even her commentary when he did something wrong. He missed Harry's pranks that often backfired like the time they tried to order Major Monogram an exploding pizza but accidentally trapped the delivery guy in Owca's security instead.  
But as Doofenshmirtz had said, he doubted he would be difficult to replace- that was, until he could earn the title lingering over him of Professor Time.  
Once he did, he was confident that everyone would see his worth.  
Perry's signature sound pulled him away from his negative thoughts and he realized his gaze had fallen back to his table of design ideas.  
"Sorry, Perry the Platypus. I'm just really worried about figuring out this whole /Time Travel/ thing."  
Perry leapt up onto the table to stand at the scientist's eye level.  
"It's not just the time machine aspect in and of itself- I did it once I can do it again- what's difficult is finding a way to stabalize it and not only that, but figure out how I'm actually going to create this future that Cavendish and Dakota are certain I will. I'm just worried it will fall into the wrong hands or that I'll do something wrong and mess up the whole timeline-"  
Perry's eyes looked back at him with soft concern.  
Doofenshmirtz dropped his head into his hands as if it would help in some way. Mostly he just wanted to hide his biggest fear of being forgotten by the world and abandoned by those closest to him like he often remembers his family had done.  
Suddenly a surprisingly strong tug pulled his hands away. He looked up to see Perry sitting on the edge of his desk.  
The platypus then pulled his right hand away and pressed it palm-down onto his working blueprint of a new time machine on the table.  
Heinz looked from it, to Perry and finally smiled.  
"You're right. I just have to keep working. I'm never going to know how things will work out unless I actually do them. Thanks, Perry the Platypus."  
Perry replied with a sharp nod of satisfaction before jumping down from the table.  
He tipped his hat and headed back for the door.  
"I know you're busy, but next time I'll order food or something, alright? Better than Owca's buffet."  
Perry smiled back at him as he opened the door for himself and was met with a happy grin back from the scientist.  
A certain incident involving the Owca buffet and a food fight was yet another fond memory to them both but more so, Perry was just happy they hadn't grown appart since Doofenshmirtz left Owca to follow his real destiny.  
Perry attempted to speak a response and Heinz knew to take the same commonly used sound as a yes.  
Once on the other side of the door, Perry glanced at his watch and winced. He /should/ be with his team and he was already late.  
He didn't regret his detour but he did wonder when his prioreties started changing. He had to keep his focus. Maintaining good standings in Owca meant keeping his spot on his team with Maggie, Karen, and Harry; and more importantly keeping his family.  
Not only was he living a double life now but almost a triple life- and it was getting difficult to maintain....


	2. Chapter 2

After Perry had rejuvenated his motivation, Heinz Doofenshmirtz had found himself on a hot streak.  
He designed his first official prototype and nearly completed it overnight. Screws, wires, and obscure materials seemed to find their place more easily knowing that things would somehow work out. Somehow.  
Yet the entire time he wondered how the pieces of his knowledge of the future would help or hurt his next course of action. He wondered how to distribute something as powerful as time travel- he'd seen movies and knew it could be dangerous in the wrong hands after all. He wondered how to decide who could use it and who should keep track of how it was used and- more dangerously- what the reprocussions of constantly traveling through time were. He wondered what else he could achieve with the power of time and all of the mysteries it held.  
Once he completed it, he stood back in awe.  
"15 years early...." he wondered.  
What did that mean? What effect would it have? Would Cavendish and Dakota be okay? Would their great future remain intact?  
He heard Perry's firmiliar noise suddenly at his side.  
"Perry the Platypus!" He said, pleasantly surprised.  
His smile quickly faded into concern as he looked over the tired expression on the platypus's face.  
Perry attempted a confident smile but Heinz knew him too well to buy it.  
"I ordered some of your favorite."  
He lightened the mood, suddenly rushing to the fridge.  
Perry smiled and followed a little more slowly.  
He climbed up onto the counter next to the fridge as Heinz put a box of chinese take out into the microwave- which Perry was fairly confident he shouldn't do- and then began to make tea.  
Perry leaned against the fridge in exhaustion but soon got up to turn off the microwave before Heinz could overcook the already-popping rice.  
"Were you up all night too?" Heinz asked.  
Perry nodded sleepily.  
"Same here. I've almost completed a time machine that doesn't run on time juice alone."  
Perry made his chattering noise.  
"It requires an electrical burst to jump start it in case of emergency."  
Perry looked at him quizically.  
"Alright yeah, it's not so good for traveling very far in the past- but there has to still be electricity in the future so it's still a win."  
Heinz poured Perry some tea and handed the mug to him with a saucer. Perry noted that it was oolong and wondered if Heinz had remembered all the way back to their first team mission from Owca when he had ordered it.  
"I'm really tired too, but I recorded that soap opera if you want to-"  
Perry nodded enthusiastically.  
Heinz chuckled and the two made their way to his couch just as the first light of day was starting to illuminate the sky.  
He turned on the show, but they were both asleep before the first scene ended.  
-

Heinz woke up at around lunch time with no sign of Perry or even any obvious evidence the agent had been there. Perry's cup and saucer were empty in the sink and his container of takeout tossed into the trash.  
Heinz understood Perry probably had to leave before his host family realized he was missing and then get ready before he was late to check in with the O.W.C.A., but that was about the extent that he knew about Perry. Nevertheless, he hoped that Perry and his other friends back at Owca were doing well as he quickly ran through his morning routine. He soon returned to his lab, picked back up a wrench, and wondered what to do next.  
Should he go to the future and figure out what to do that way? Or could that mess things up even more? Should he go find his future self? Should he go look for Cavendish and Dakota?  
"No." He quickly decided. "I have to do this myself. I have to prove that I deserve to be the person everyone seems to think I am."  
He paced across his lab a few times before eventually sitting back down to look over at his creation.  
He took a deep breath. If only he knew someone who understood his troubles. Maybe they could help him gain some sense of direction-  
"Of course!" He realized abruptly.  
A grin grew across his face as he jumped into his new time machine- a much more simple, single bench with a safety bar and side lever- and set the date for somewhere and more importantly for some/one/ he knew could help.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, remember me?!" Doofenshmirtz called from the doorway of a small office.  
He attempted casually rest an arm against the wooden doorframe but miscalculated the distance and instead slipped nearly knocked over a coat rack in the small corner. A dark brown personal coat and Doctor Zone-style jacket with matching hat swayed with the sudden movement but the quick hand of the writer at his desk reached out to catch one of the wooden hooks and push the stand back in place.  
"Of course!" Orton Mahlson replied calmly accompanied by a kind smile. He stood up and shook Heinz's hand politely. "It's very nice to see you- but now isn't a great time," he said, glancing back to the papers sprawled all over his desk, "I'm having quite a difficult time trying to write this particular story and I need to finish it as soon as possible-"  
"Well, you're in luck!" Doofenshmirtz chirped, suddenly finding the energy to be himself again after being cooped up in his lab for so long.  
"I'm trying to figure out my next move as well! How about a trip in my new time machine for inspiration? Maybe we can help each other."  
Orton pondered his proposition for a moment before glancing back to his disarray papers and then to the excited scientist in front of him yet again.  
"That might actually be just what I need right now."  
Orton pondered aloud with his pointer finger under his chin.  
Heinz happily swung an arm over his shoulders.  
"That's perfect! Only thing is, I have to tell you I might ramble a bit. I'm much more used to monologuing with my nemesis than simply explaining something."  
He began to lead the way back through the Doctor Zone set to where he parked his time machine.  
"Oh, it's no problem!" Orton said with genuin pleasure. He produced a notepad and pencil from his coat pocket.  
"Hearing about the struggles and adventures of an actual time traveler could do wonders for my show! My writing could use a little more-"  
"Je ne sais quoi." Heinz beamed with a gesture to himself.  
"-relatable drama." Orton finished, taking the lead while Doofenshmirtz slowed subconciously from the distraction.  
Heinz simply blinked at him before quickly picking up his pace again.  
"You want drama you should hear about my family." He quipped.  
Without waiting for a reply, he climbed into the time machine and slid over next to the controls. Orton slid in next to him and watched as Heinz struggled to decide what date to enter.  
"When do you want to go?" Heinz asked and turned to his new companion.  
Orton looked over the control pannel.  
"I'm not really sure. When do you suggest?"  
Heinz shrugged. "This is my first stop." He gestured vaguely to the world around them. "I was hoping you could help me figure out what to do next. I unraveled the mysteries of time but I just /don't know/ how to get from here- well not /here here/ but my own time when I built this time machine- to the person I'm suppose to be in the future, /Professor Time/."  
He announced the name as if he were reading the title of a broadway play, his hand arcing from left to right before him.  
"That /is/ quite the delema." Orton commented, visually taking notes.  
Heinz sighed and leaned himself over the bar before them in dismay.  
"I thought that somehow I would just know, ya'know? That this is who I'm suppose to become and once I get started I would just /know what to do/. But that's not how it's turned out at all so far."  
"Mhm." Orton nodded, still writing.  
"And it's almost more difficult /knowing/ that I /can/ do all this because I've spent all my life trying to be seen as /worth something/ -and now I know I can be but I haven't earned it yet and I don't know how to get there."  
Orton nodded in understanding, looking to his distressed friend.  
"Perry the Platypus would know but he's already so busy and I want to prove that I can do this myself."  
He set his head down on the control pannel before him.  
"Emergency mode enganged, date selected: 1882"  
A voice annoucned, surprising Doofenshmirtz so much that he sat up on impulse as one of the lights started to flash a bright red.  
"Oh no." Doofenshmirtz commented before they were suddenly tossed through the time stream.  
-

Upon landing, Doofenshmirtz was the first to leap out of the time machine and immediately began to examine the one-of-a-kind machine.  
"Well. This is... not good." He decided, crouched down to examine a particular part of it.  
"What happened?" Orton asked, stepping out of the vehicle himself.  
Heinz continued to sprint around the machine in bursts to check over nearly every inch of it.  
"Short version? I pressed the wrong button. It only has enough fuel for one trip to the year 2175 - when Dakota and Cavendish said they were from - and then one trip back. I instead went to your time to see if you wanted to come with me and then the emergency mode took us to 1882 with... a little more punch than I was expecting." He explained with a nervous chuckle. "But that's fine. I added a way to jump start," He slid open a hidden hatch and pulled out a basic U.S. standard wall plug and held it up with pride.  
"It probably took us to around the time when electricity was first invented so all we have to do is find somewhere to plug this in and problem solved!"  
He gave Orton a triumphant smile as to convince him not to worry. However, Orton wasn't so easily convinced.  
"Um... but aren't we still in the same physical area the studio is- will someday be?" Orton asked carefully.  
Doofenshmirtz glanced around with a shrugged.  
"Yeah, why?"  
"Well.... Wasn't the first electrical grid build in New York?"  
Doofenshmirtz looked around slowly only to find grass as far as the eye could see.  
He let out a deep sigh.  
"Okay, so maybe I have a /few/ adjustments to make. Specific travel distance as well as ability to travel through time, bigger fuel tank, a better emergency escape mode...."  
He listed off the adjustments on his fingers. He suddenly paused to glance over to Orton's notebook.  
"Can borrow some paper?"  
-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this Time Machine he makes here is the time machine that ends up in the museum in "It's About Time"  
> It will make more sense later on  
> I kinda took the joke of it having to be plugged in and ran with it lol oops


	4. Chapter 4

Perry the Platypus usually enjoyed running through training exercises with new recruits but he was having a difficult time focusing on it today. Usually it was one of the perks as a top agent in his field- and a welcomed alternative to paperwork since he no longer had an official nemesis to twart every day- but he was distracted by the fact that /Heinz Doofenshmirtz/ of all people was working on a time machine. The pair from the future seemed to have great confidence in Doofenshmirtz's abilities as an inventor and innovator, but Perry was concerned about the possible reprocussions. Perry had seen- albiet from a distance- future Professor Time save the day, proving what Dakota and Cavendish had said to be true; but Perry still worried.  
He'd never seen Heinz with so much confidence in himself before, and Perry felt nothing but support, but Perry also knew that the scientist had a tendecy to get a little caught up in the swing of things and it worried Perry that he didn't have anyone to watch his back on his way to fulfill this new destiny.  
Perry tried to ignore the uneasy feeling. This was /his nemesis/ they were talking about. If anyone could take on whatever life threw at them, it was Heinz Doofenshmirtz.  
Yet deep down, Perry still wished he could be there instead, just to make sure.  
-

Heinz opened a pannel on the side of the mechine and let the steam disperse before pulling out the power source. He shook the container so the small amount of remaining green liquid swirled against the wall of the semi-transparent cylinder.  
"Okay we /might/ have a chance at getting back to your time... but I'll need your watch."  
Orton unhooked his watch and handed it to Doofenshmirtz who was shoulder-deep into the inner-workings of the machine.  
"Thanks." He replied, taking the watch and looking over it before quickly dunking it into the tank of fuel. He examined it as if he were a professional but soon simply shrugged and dropped it into the container all together.  
"I don't suppose I'm getting my watch back anytime soon, am I? I rather like it. It was a gift from my father."  
Heinz visibly winced, his blatant expression showing that he must not have completely thought things through.  
"Sorry, but it might be our only hope back. How about once we get back to your time I'll retrieve it and fix it myself?"  
"Fair enough."  
Orton sighed and instead decided to occupied himself with his own task at hand while Heinz fixed the time machine. He climbed up to sit on top of the machine and continue to write.  
"It's quite difficult to plan out a story when I have yet to determined it's significance."  
He thought aloud, only half wishing for an kind of reply.  
Heinz didn't glance up from his work but replied anyways.  
"What do you mean?"  
Orton tapped his paper with his pencil until small dots ran along the top right corner of his page.  
"I haven't decided the effect I want the story to have. For a story to really resonate with someone, there's usually some message they need or something they can relate to and make them feel like they're not alone. It could be how a character acts or how they change as a person, but it can also be the story itself that teaches something important." He stared up to the incredably blue sky in thought.  
"I want my stories to be able to influence people and make them better, I just don't know how yet."  
He flipped his notebook back to another page.  
"I really think I can accomplish something great with this next story. It will be inconspicuous and lighthearted, but hopefully remembered fondly. So far, our main heros have been split up and our main protagonist feels that they have something to prove to the other for their loyalty, but they've lost sense of direction and an evil is looming in wait for the perfect time to strike when the hero is most vulnerable and alone-"  
"Heeeey, isn't this spoilers?" Doofenshmirtz sat up on the grass.  
"I don't know. What episode are you on?" Orton replied.  
"Actually I only watched the first few episodes. It felt unfair to watch more than you have."  
Orton considered this for a moment. "Thank you... I suppose."  
"No problem!" Doofenshmirtz replied chipperly before continuing with his work.  
"So what does this evil want?" Heinz asked, his voice echoing back from the interior of the machine in front of him.  
"Well, I'm not /entirely/ sure yet, but I was thinking that-"  
"Hey, I'm done!" Doofenshmirtz interrupted, unable to contain his excitement. He quickly re-secured the panel.  
Orton slid down from the curved overhang of the vehicle and rejoined Heinz on the inside seating.  
"Spledid!" Orton replied.  
"We should have just enough for one more jump but that's about it. Cross your fingers."  
He began to re-enter the date.  
"I have to make up for lost time too. I've forgotton to do just about everything I need to- namely go grocery shopping."  
He mused and pulled out a grocery list as proof when a low grumbling noise and strong wind blew through the time machine. His list was swept from his hand and did a loop before getting caught under the seat as Heinz raised his arm for cover.  
To their right was suddenly an enormous, mysterious time vehicle suddenly racing directly towards them.  
"Who is that?" Orton said, holding tight to the brim of his hat.  
"I have no idea but I'd rather we didn't find out." Heinz replied in distress.  
He looked back down to the keypad.  
"Ah this is still the wrong date! 2-0- AH-"  
He quickly tried to re-enter the correct date when the pod was suddenly slammed into from the side, sending both of the men flying from it in the opposite direction of the crash and rolling to the ground several feet away.  
"Well that was quite rude!" Orton exclaimed. "What on Earth was that about?"  
"How should I know?!" Doofenshmirtz replied, exasperated, "I just started time traveling today!"  
His voice calmed momentarily, "Technically we did time travel /before/ today but I didn't think that was related!"  
A new voice suddenly chimed in.  
"By order of the Bureau of Time Travel you are under arrest! Please remain silent and surrender." Someone ordered as they stepped out of the vehicle.  
"Did you really have to crash it already? This is our second one /this month/!" Another replied, stepping out of the passenger side of the vehicle. This one had a much deeper voice than the first, but Doofenshmirtz had yet to look at them as he brushed the dirt from his labcoat and stood up.  
"Talk about crashes! This is my first time machine /ever/. What's your problem?!" Doofenshmirtz said angrily as he effortlessly held out a hand to help up his associate. Orton soon hurried to his feet but remained a little more stunned by the entire interaction than the scientist next to him.  
Heinz stared down the pair who had crashed into them, apparently on purpose at that. The one who had gotten out of the passenger side was a rather buff-looking man and the other who must have been driving was a woman with dark long hair who looked ready to break someone's neck at the drop of a hat.  
Unfortunatly for them, Doofenshmirtz knew his fair share of being thrown around and wasn't about to back down so easily.  
"You two had better explain yourselves- and quick!" He demanded.  
"Us explain ourselves?!" The woman began sharply, "/YOU/ two had better explain yourselves! We detected an /unregistered/ time mechine! And used nearly 15 years before they are permitted at that!"  
"Public use?! I /INVENTED/ it! And /YOU/ subsequently /broke/ it! And what's /that/ all about? Your Bureau of whatever just lets you do whatever you want?"  
"We don't have time for this."  
The woman lunged for his hand but Doofenshmirtz pulled away even faster.  
"Chill out! Let's talk this out- ow!"  
Her parter quickly cuffed his wrists and did the same with Orton.  
"What are you doing?" The strange man asked Orton calmly.  
"Writing a screenplay." He replied with mild concern. "Is that okay?"  
The woman replied for her partner, "I guess. Now hurry up. We're taking you both back to the Bureau. They'll figure out what to do with you there."  
The pair shuffled them into their own vehicle- abandoning the one Heinz and Orton had arrived in for the time being- and the lady entered a date. Doofenshmirtz caught a glimpse.  
"2-1-7-5!" He read the year. "That's where I was going to go in the first place! I heard it's really nice there."  
The divider between the front and the back was slowly lowered down.  
"What do you mean you heard it's nice there?"  
"I didn't hear a /ton/, or even that it's /nice/ per se, but I met these two guys from there and they seemed to like it well enough."  
The two turned to look at Doofenshmirtz as they entered the time stream.  
"What two guys?"  
"Oh hey, you might know them!" Doofenshmirtz nonchelantly set his still-cuffed hands over the divide.  
"One was kinda tall and british and seemed to be a really big fan of me and the other had an accent too but it was something else, wore a tracksuit or something-"  
The lady suddenly set the emergency break and it send Doofenshmirtz rolling backward through the vehicle until he slammed into the back doors.  
Orton only watched from the comfort of the limo-style seating along the side.  
"Dakota and Cavendish?" The woman demanded in a sharp, almost hushed voice.  
Heinz sat up on the floor and rubbed his head.  
"Yeah, them."  
"Those two absolute idiots! They must have messed something up!" The lady spat to her partner in controlled rage.  
"You could cut them some slack don't you think? They did help save the world and stuff."  
Heinz looked up to Orton.  
"Back me up?"  
Orton nodded and looked up from his paper to address the pair in the front seat.  
"Yes, they did. I was there too."  
"Hold up," the man in the passenger seat said, "You're saying those two baffoons really did help save the world?"  
"Yes!" Heinz said now with a new hint of annoyance.  
"But more importantly, don't you know who /I/ am? They said I end up being a really big deal."  
"We're not very good with celebraties." The lady replied, now much calmer than before.  
Heinz sat on the edge of the seat closest to the front seats.  
"I invented time travel? Heinz Doofenshmirtz?"  
The two looked at each other and shook their heads.  
"I mean maybe. It sounds firmiliar but I doubt you're actually him." The lady said in a casual voice.  
Doofenshmirtz stared them down in shock.  
"How do you not recognize me?!"  
"Would you recognize the guy who invented the car? Or the television? Or the hovercraft?"  
The male agent justified he and Savanna's wavering on the matter.  
Heinz looked away in thought and then gave a calm shrug.  
"I'd like to think that last one was also me but I see your point. Touché."  
"Regardless, I think it's best if we take you two to our superiors and see if your story checks out." The lady decided, letting go of the emergency break and continuing on their travel.  
Heinz sighed again.  
"Fine. I did want to see 2175 anyways."  
He said chipperly before pausing.  
"But could you at least tell us your names? I still think it's kinda weird we don't all know each other."  
The agents in the front seemed to hesitate as if the request was parculiar in some way but after a moment they gave in.  
"I'm Savanna and that's Brick."  
"Only one name? Is that a future thing?"  
"It's a code name thing." Savanna replied flatly.  
"Alright, alright. Well obviously I'm Heinz Doofenshmirtz- although now I wish someone had told me in advance that we were doing code names because I would have probably picked something cooler- and that is-"  
"Orton Mahlson." The writer looked up. "A pleasure to meet you both."  
"You know /actually/ in the future I do end up being called /Professor Time/. So I guess that's kind of like a code name."  
The vehicle exited the time stream just as the pair realized what he was saying, "You're Professor Time?!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the amount of /s I've used so far but Doof puts a lot of emphesis on some words over others and I was trying to keep everyone in character as much as I know how lol  
> Also if you've read this far thank you so much!!!  
> I know this is kinda trash but I had fun writing it and I'm not going to worry about my writing being perfect anymore bc if I did I'd never post anything  
> I promise this is going somewhere. I actually planned this story in advance and yes my opinion is going to be biased but I'd like to think the ending is worth a bit of waiting.  
> I tried my best idk. When you finish please tell me what you think in the comments!!!


	5. Chapter 5

"Yeah, I'm Professor Time! Didn't you hear me say that I /invented time travel/?!"  
"Of course, but I thought you were trying to pull some "Who really invented the radio?" kind of thing! Plus you look completely different! How were we suppose to recognize you?" Brick replied.  
"No wonder the name sounded firmiliar!" Savanna exclaimed in frustration.  
"Well regardless," she continued, "even if you are who you say you are; we have to take you to our superiors to sort this all out."  
The divide between front and back rolled up until Heinz could only see the vague figures of the agents.  
"Savanna? Brick?" Doofenshmirtz called to no avail.  
He signed and sat down across from Orton who had stopped writing for the moment. His eye suddenly caught onto movement out of the window behind him. Their surroundings had suddenly turned into a city scape but Doofenshmirtz didn't have time to appreciate it as his instincts focused on another vehicle racing towards them.  
He rolled his eyes as the large tank of a vehicle refused to yeild and within seconds was slamming into the back left corner of the limo, sending it skidding to a stop only after making a near complete 180.  
"Duck!"  
Heinz instructed. He impulsively swapped seats next to Orton and quickly ducked his head, holding his still-cuffed hands protectively over his neck so the impact of the crash couldn't shake him.  
The crash was loud but it was over in the blink of an eye with no physical damage to either of them.  
"What was that?" Orton asked in shock.  
Heinz sat back up and shrugged nonchelantly as if it had never happened.  
"I heard I was popular, but I don't think this is what they had in mind."  
The back doors were abruptly pried open with a loud snap and two masked people pulled the pair out the back and to a different vehicle.  
"You know, you should really thank those two. /They/ already cuffed us." He informed them, holding up his cuffed wrists. "What's your plan? Do you have handcuffs? And much more importantly: do you have the key for these ones because you realize it would be much easier on you if you had the keys."  
There was no reply as they were sat down in the back of some kind of van.  
"I'm just saying."  
-

Perry entered Doofenshmirtz's lab only to find it empty. Neither the man nor his machine were there and somewhere deep down in his heart, Perry found himself upset and even deeper down he found himself mad at himself for being upset.  
He wasn't surprised Doofenshmirtz would use it on his own, and it wasn't that Perry wanted to time travel- it was the simple fact that Perry had missed it. He had missed his best friend's destiny and funny enough, even a time machine couldn't fix this one.  
Perry had been the one person to support the scientist for so long that now he felt almost as if he was no longer needed. He knew it wasn't true and that Doofenshmirtz /shouldn't/ rely on Perry when he was perfectly capable on his own. But Doofenshmirtz was the one person to treat Perry like an equal and to somehow, seeing him go off on his own like this, was a feeling Perry hadn't known before. Maybe they /were/ growing apart- for the better, but still apart nonetheless.  
Maybe he would get his own secret third life like Perry already had. His life as a regular person, his life with Perry and the rest of Owca, and his life as Professor Time.  
Perry smiled a little as he headed back towards the front door.  
He hoped Heinz's future would make him as happy as their time together had made Perry.  
"Hey, Perry!" An oddly firmiliar voice called.  
Perry spun around with an instinctual fist up in preparation for a fight but only found Dakota standing a short distance away.  
"It's just me. Yunno, Dakota," he gestured to himself, "we kinda met once with the whole thing whole nutjobber thing in Swamp City." He gestured vaguely with a thumb jab to his left towards the skyline visible from the open balcony.  
Perry made his signature noise.  
Dakota spoke without forethought,  
"How does Professor Time always know what you're saying? It all sounds the same to me."  
Perry narrowed his eyes with a threatening glare and crossed his arms, making the same sound once more.  
"Okay, alright, I get it, I'm sorry, just listen. I'm not s'pose to be here but some Time Pirates have the Professor and I'm worried it could mess things up even worse than me and Cav might've last time we were here."  
Perry looked him over. Were things not suppose to go this way at all? Could this be one of the unforseen reprocussions Doofenshmirtz had been worried about?  
"Yeah it sounds kinda cheezy but we call 'em Time Pirates because they steal priceless items from different times and sell them for money. They're mad we won't give 'em the secret to time travel so they have to steal vehicles and fuel from the Bureau. As you can imagine, makes it pretty difficult for them. It's kinda of funny when you think about it 'cause they can only plan around the Bureau which makes it easy to catch them. It's like if you had a car that only got like 30 miles on a tank so it can only drive between gas stations."  
Dakota chuckled slightly at his own analogy.  
"Sorry, point is- Cav's got the car and we could use your help. We think they're trying to get the Professor to teach them how to make their own vehicles and fuel- which as you imagine- would be very bad"  
Perry nodded with a smile.  
"That was easier than I thought." Dakota sighed with relief.  
Perry was already out the door and heading for the elevator.  
"Hey, wait for me!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It JUST occured to me that I didn't put anything so far through any kind of autocorrect and I literally can't spell to save my life so  
> I apologize  
> I am so sorry  
> Maybe I'll do it at some point but not rn  
> I just want to post these before I get too nervous and change my mind

"You seem extremely calm despite the fact that you've been abducted two different times today."  
Heinz recognized Orton's voice despite the blindfold forcing him to keep his eyes closed.  
"Eh. You get used to it."  
He listened for a moment and decided the two people who had moved them were most likely still in the small area with them. But he wasn't worried. Infact, he addressed them directly.  
"So do you guys want to tell us what you want because I'd be happy to oblige. I used to be evil so if you want to just skip ahead and do the monologue now it could save us some time later to- I don't know, order a pizza or something? Actually now that I mention it I could eat. A pizza would be great. But it's really all the same to me I guess."  
"You used to be evil?" Orton asked in surprise.  
"Actually yeah I was." Heinz said proudly. "It was fun for a while, but it was lonely and it didn't get me what I actually wanted." The short chain on his cuffs made noise as he gestured to no one. "And then I turned to the good side and that was even better but the short version is: I wasn't sure if it was really /me/. The whole time travel gig just suits me better."  
His tone suddenly turned into annoyance.  
"Although /so far/ it's just been a lot of misunderstandings."  
"You got that right."  
Doofenshmirtz could hear Orton faintly lean his head back against the side of the vehicle with a soft metalic bang.  
"You know, I don't know why we're even blindfolded if we're in a contained space like this. It's a little dull. How far away is this evil lair of yours? And could you at least let my pal write? This is good material! Don't you evil guys want to be part of the story?"  
A new voice suddenly snapped, as if its owner had been biting their tongue up until now.  
"If we take the blindfolds off could you be quiet until we get there? It's just a few more minutes and your voice is killing me. It's so loud in here."  
"/That's/ your own fault for paneling it in metal! You're lucky I don't start singing!" Heinz replied loudly on purpose.  
"Sure whatever!" The same unknown voice snapped,  
"Deal or not?"  
"Deal!" Heinz agreed.  
One of the mysterious, dark figures each took of their captives' blindfolds. They let Orton's fall down to hang limpy at his neck but someone else took Heinz's and tightened it around his mouth.  
"Rude!" He said, extremely muffled.  
He watched in annoyance as Orton politely thanked his captor and continue to write.  
-

"So I know what you're thinking, how did we get to keep such a sweet ride after everything that happened?" Dakota said, gesturing to the ugly, beat up car they were getting into.  
"Well, long story short is that we didn't, we just borrowed it from past us-es... so there's a small chance we're going to get caught and in /even more/ trouble sooo... that's a thing."  
Cavendish tipped his hat at Perry as the platypus climbed into the back seat. Dakota shut the door for him and proceeded to the passenger seat. Cavendish started the car and punched in a date and location.  
"Also, the only reason Cavendish didn't /immediately/ refuse to do this is because he has such a /huge/ celebrity crush on Professor Time."  
"No I don't, Dakota." Cavendish grumbled as if he were embarrassed that Dakota would dare even suggest it to one of Doofenshmirtz's friends.  
"I just admire him a lot... and based my career on his accomplisments... and want to do something amazing like he did. That's all."  
Dakota glanced over to Perry with a smile and Perry hid his chuckle with one hand.  
"He dropped his hat once and said 'Professor Time forgive me!'"  
Dakota gestured dramatically with an incredably bad, fake british accent that contradicted his Boston one.  
His partner was immediately flustered by the secret being shared and snapped at Dakota, blushing in embarrassment.  
"Dakota!"  
A tiny part of Perry wanted to gloat about how close he and Heinz were but he didn't. He knew didn't need to and for the first time in a while he felt content with that.  
-


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cool stuff is finally happening I swear

"Welcome!" The greeter said with a polite bow before holding out an arm to gesture to the rest of the lair.  
It resembled an underground subway station in nearly every way- there was a main platform with passage ways on either side and a dip on one far end where the rail-line would normally be. It was all nearly identical in lay out but the design couldn't be further from it.  
The large room was incredably clean and its design incredably elegant. It looked almost as if its designer had taken the 'underground' theme to heart. The ceiling was a light blue while the walls were a soft white. Plants were lines along nearly every wall, but they were definately not pistachions. The ground they walked on was a bold choice of green but it somehow balanced the other colors.  
Heinz noted that the vehicle they had arrived in had been parked on the tracks and disregarded with no train in sight.  
"Do you like it?"  
The mysterious greeter asked.  
They looked around once more. Scattered around the platform were small groups who were busy at work with at least one computer per table. A few seconds later, a handful of workers would leave their groups and walk to the edge of the platform as if waiting for a train. In less than the blink of an eye, a time vehicle materialized and the small team would quickly place supplies in the back seat or question the driver as if they were some kind of put crew checking in on the vehicle. In less than a minute, the vehicle would disappear again and the cycle seemed to start all over again.  
"What is it?" Heinz asked in confusion.  
The greeter sighed and rubbed a hand over their face which was covered by a dark hood and a scarf that slightly muffled their words. The figure seemed to be a man judging from the voice, and wore a semi-formal dark vest over a tan shirt and most distinctively; a worn and somewhat-dated, dark-brown coat.  
"Of course /you/ wouldn't understand!" He said in an offended yet soft voice. He straightened up as he continued,  
"This is my company of sorts. The Bureau might hold a monopoly on time vehicles, but where there's a will there's a way." The mysterious figure said proudly,  
"We borrow what they're not using and we travel through time- of course that is until we get caught." He sighed but continued optimistically.  
"But what can you do really? It makes it all the more fun."  
"More fun?" Orton asked, unsure of his stance on this just yet. He was too surprised to remember to write all this down.  
"Yes!" The figure said, thinking he was being related to.  
"Imagine, checking out books from the actual Library of Alexandria or going forwards to see what becomes of your legacy!"  
"You said this was a business?" Orton wondered, still unsure.  
The figure nodded in a professional manner and paced more slowly before the pair.  
"Well yes." He opened and then shut one hand before him in a dramatic fashion. His movements were precise and elegant, as if every action was planned so it could flow into the next.  
"We pick up things on our way- non-essencial things we are /sure/ no one will miss, we do our research /I assure you/- and then we sell them. We have to fund all of this somehow."  
"That does sound like a fun way to use time travel." Doofenshmirtz considered.  
"You're one to talk, /Professor Time/." The figure hissed from beneith their barrier of clothing.  
"Me!" Heinz exclaimed, "all I've done so far is /invent/ it! I don't control who uses it! I don't even know who runs this Bureau you speak of!"  
The figure seemed to try to restrain themself but they were too bitter to hold it back.  
"Oh, don't you?! You appointed the CEO of the Bureau of Time Travel!"  
"I did?" Heinz searched his memory as if he should somehow remember it even though it hadn't happened yet.  
"So who is it? Who did I appoint?"  
The figure couldn't seem to bring themself to shout but he hissed the words as if they were poison to him.  
"No one knows! They only go by a title. Agent P."  
-

"Do you want a time chip, Perry?" Dakota asked lightheartedly, offering him the open bag.  
Perry reached his hand in and pulled out a single chip in curiosity.  
"Where the devil did you get more time chips?!" Cavendish questioned his partner as they traveled through the time stream.  
Dakota only brushed it aside. "Eh, I keep 'em stashed all over the place. I'm pretty sure there's a bag under your seat as we speak!"  
He nonchelantly tossed a chip up in the air and caught it in his mouth.  
Cavendish grumbled something under his breath in annoyance.  
"What was that?" Dakota asked sarcastically, raising a hand to one of his ears. "Did you want a chip too?"  
He pulled another chip out of the bag and jokingly taunted his partner with it by holding it up to his face, moving it as if it were taking small steps in the air towards him.  
"I know they're your favorite!" Dakota smirked, leaning closer.  
Cavendish snapped his jaw and took the chip in the blink of an eye as if it were some kind of retaliation but the second he realized what he'd done he turned away to the window next to him.  
Perry could see him blushing like mad in the wing mirror.  
He allowed himself a silent chuckle. It wasn't like anyone would know of he did.  
"Win- me!" Dakota announced innocently.  
His voice quickly resided back to his usual tone.  
"But seriously, we should probably think of an actual plan."  
"Yes, of course!" Balthazar attempted to recover his composure a little too quickly. Dakota didn't seem to notice.  
"So these time pirates," Dakota explained, turning once more to Perry who sat back comfortably in the middle of the back seat with the safety belt over his lap.  
"They like to take things right before their experation date. It's like going back to ancient egypt and taking things directly out of a tomb before it's closed off. Actually I wouldn't put it past them to do that."  
He pondered the idea for a moment, "Point is, they're stealing from the Bureau and then using those supplies to steal more stuff and pawn it off for profit. I think the higher-ups think it's too dangerous and don't want inexperienced non-agents messing with the timeline or whatever and we realized," he gestured between himself and Cavendish, "that they probably took your friend to 'teach them his ways' if you will- and if that happens then nothing is safe. Time travel will be unregulated and it could mess everything things up worse than me and Cav already do. So you see why we need your help."  
Perry the Platypus nodded in agreement.  
Cavendish spoke up with a special carefulness to his words,  
"It wasn't until we met you that I realized the close friend he had constantly mentioned in his writings /had/ to be you. There was no one else who could possibly fit the descriptions."  
Dakota laughed, "What Cav's saying is that he was a /HUGE/ nerd who spent every waking second researching-"  
"Dakota, please!"  
The younger of the pair let out a deep, grumbly sigh and allowed his partner to continue as he finished off the bag of chips.  
"I knew that if someone could help us save The Professor, it's you."  
Perry considered asking what descriptions he meant. He wondered what Heinz could have written about him to make Cavendish certain he was a close friend, yet completley /un/certain until they had met. He didn't get the chance as they quickly dropped out of the time stream.  
The trio piled out of the car but to their confusion, they found nothing but grass.  
"I was getting a strong reading resembling the signature of an old model time vehicle eminating from this area! Where could he have gone?"  
Cavendish vocalized his dismay.  
But there truely was nothing.  
They split up and began to walk in different directions.  
Perry worried they might have been too late, but he kept hope that Heinz was finding a way out of this as they searched.  
"Well this isn't good." Dakota suddenly spoke up, looking over a small hill. The other two hurried over to join him.  
Before them was an easy to read scene. The prototype was knocked over by some kind of impact into its right side which must have been caused a large vehicle judging from the torn up grass and dirt.  
A young man dressed in plaid was looking over the misplaced machine with a curious expression.  
"Who are you?" Cavendish walked up to meet the stranger.  
"Xavier Onassis! At your service. And who might you be?"  
"Balthazar Cavendish, but if you wouldn't mind," he tipped his hat, "we're quite busy looking for a friend."  
"Now he's a friend." Dakota observed in amusement.  
"Oh don't mind me!" Onassis replied, "I'm just headin' west! This is the most interesting thing I've seen by far! What is it?"  
"Time machine." Dakota replied. "Vinnie Dakota, nice t' meet'cha." He said, shaking the stranger's hand.  
"Dakota!" Cavendish snapped at his companion.  
"C'mon! Lighten up. What harm can it do?"  
"My word! A time machine?" Onassis took off his hat in surprise.  
"Yep, and this is Perry the Platypus." Dakota introduced the small agent, "Just accept it."  
Onassis looked to him and only studdered for a brief moment before dipping his head in greeting.  
"W-well, hello to you too, sir."  
Perry tipped the brim of his hat in response and smiled at the gentleman.  
Behind Onassis, Cavendish and Dakota were returning the large machine to its upright position with a level of difficulty. After a lot of pushing, they managed to sit it back up.  
"Good as new!" Dakota said proudly. "But what was he doing here in the first place?"  
Onassis stepped up to the platform and picked up a small paper he noticed had gotten caught under the seating.  
"Perhaps this could be of service!" He read the page for everyone to hear. "Salad, chicken, corndogs? What is a corndog?"  
"A great food from the future!" Dakota happily explained.  
"Blast it! Nothing but a shopping list!" Cavendish cursed, pulling out a personal device.  
Dakota leaned against the time machine and continued as Cavendish stomped away,  
"The future has all kinds of great food and it's much easier to make a living there than wondering around here. Where even /is/ here?"  
Luckily for him, Cavendish was already looking up that very question.  
"It seems we have been here before! Not here now- but here in the future! It is where the studio Doctor Zone will one day be filmed in will be built! It can't be a coincidence!" He said in genuine excitement.  
"Great! But first thing's first. I don't think we should leave this thing here." Dakota gestured to the contraption before them.  
Cavendish crossed his arms in thought.  
"Perhaps-"  
"Hey Onassis, would you mind taking it to the future for us? Yunno, considering it still works."  
"I'm always up for a little adventure!" The man beamed happily.  
"Great!" Dakota replied. "How about you go there and get a corndog or something, and then we'll get you after all this is over and take you to where ever you were heading in the first place?"  
"Sounds grand!" Onassis said with excitement.  
"Alright awesome. I'll just set it for the date the machine came from and then you just pull the lever and we'll see you later."  
Dakota reached up to the panel.  
"Oh man how do I do this upside-down...." he quickly punched in some numbers.  
"A pleasure!" Onassis bid them farewell with another tip of his hat.  
"It was nice to meet you!" Dakota shook his hand. He then backed away and the others waved farewell as Xavier pulled the lever and disappeared.  
"You subtracted 15 from the year of the time machine's official invention and then-" Cavendish checked with his partner.  
"Eh. I ballparked it." Dakota shrugged, heading back to the time vehicle they had arrived in.  
"You ballparked it!" Cavendish exclaimed in exasperation, unable to believe Dakota could be so careless.  
Dakota ignored it. "Now that that's taken care of, we really do need to find Professor Zone."  
"Oh no." Cavendish put his hands to his face,  
"I can only imagine the pressure he must be under from those terrible pirates! We have to save him before it's too late!" He hurried to turn on the ignition.  
"Calm down." Dakota patted his partner's shoulder. "There's no way he would mess up everything he built." He hesitated. "Even if he doesn't know it yet.... Man this is getting complicated."  
He looked down, attempting to reorganize his thoughts, but Cavendish's temperal locator caught his eye.  
"Hey, whoah, hold up a sec. What's this about? Brick and Savanna have been trying to call us and you didn't think to answer?"  
"Of course not!" The mustached man retorted as if Dakota had been accusing him of a heiness crime.  
"If they find out what we're doing or any part of what we've already done we might as well turn ourselves in now! We've already messed with /PROFESSOR TIME's tineline/! The only way out of this now is through."  
Dakota hushed him, "Quiet it's dialing. Hey, Savanna!"  
Cavendish rolled his eyes but restrained himself from scolding Dakota.  
"You two!" Savanna hissed. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"  
Perry climbed up the back of Dakota's chair and watched carefully over his shoulder.  
Despite the inevitability of their consiquences, Dakota was more concerned with the state of his fellow agents,  
"Whoah are you okay? You look like you're in pretty bad shape."  
"It's nothing." Savanna replied, her voice not betraying any hint of worry. "What matters is that the Pirates have the pair we were suppose to turn into the Bureau! One is claiming to be Professor Time and the other is some writer or something. We had them in our custody but those pirates don't play fair. The only good news is that they're probably still in 2175- but if they're smart they won't stay here for long."  
"Why are you telling those two anything?" Brick chimed in angrily, "If that crazy guy /was/ telling the truth then all these two did was mess up the timeline of the man who /created time travel/."  
"Well if that "crazy guy" was right then apparently they also saved the world and /I'm/ certainly not going back to tell Mr. Block we lost two /more/ idiots- how about you?!"  
Brick let out an angry grunt and walked away from the video shot.  
"Vinnie Dakota, nice t' meet'cha." Dakota said with momentary hearts in his eyes.  
Cavendish lightly smacked him over the head just enough to hurt.  
"Ow! It was just impressive!" Dakota attempted to justify himself. "You know I was kidding!"  
Cavendish took the device from his hands and addressed the other agent.  
"Don't worry. We're going to fix this," He assured Savanna.  
She only scoffed.  
"You just want to impress Professor Time." She and Dakota said in near unison.  
"And you're lucky I'm not permitted to leave due to my concussion or I would come fix it myself! Try not to make it worse."  
"Thanks, Savanna!" Dakota called in good nature.  
She abruptly hung up on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're enjoying this so far  
> This chapter is a little longer because stuff is finally happening lol  
> This is about when things start to pick up so I hope you enjoy my crazy interpretation as this goes on lol  
> Please feel free to kutos or comment and tell me if you like the twist with Orton or me using the Xavier Onassis plotline. It's always kind of bothered me that he never tied in anywhere so I thought I might as well make it my own.  
> And as always, thanks for stopping by! :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I shouldn't leave these blank but I don't want to spoil my good plot points bc I tried really hard to make a coherent plot that could be plausable in the canon universe so... idk I hope it's okay so far lol

"I don't know who that is," Doofenshmirtz shrugged.  
"You don't know who you would appoint to be the strongest leader in the history of time travel?! There can't possibly be that many people you could trust with a power like that!" The dark figure said in disbelief.  
He walked away before hurrying back again, trying very desperately to put his prioreties in order. He quickly calmed and spoke again,  
"It doesn't really matter /who/ it is at this point. We simply want your help with our time vehicles. The Bureau has been tracking them and we don't know the secret to making our own."  
"So you want me to build you one?" Heinz asked.  
"Yes exactly!" The figure reached out to clasp his hands on Heinz's upper arms in excitement.  
"Will you help us?"  
He looked around the room to see nearly every person look to him for an answer but it all fadded from his view as Heinz looked to himself for an answer.  
Could this be how his invention was kicked off? Could it be that this was the push he needed? To give these people freedom?  
But was it really the right choise? If this man was telling the truth then Professor Time didn't seem think so. Or did he and this man both have something wrong?  
He wanted to agree. Deep down he really did want to help. Any other day he might have agreed but he had this potential and future to fulfill and it made him question why he was still standing there wondering.  
"I want to but..."  
He looked over the mysterious figure only a foot away from him.  
"If I appointed someone to run the Bureau then I must have had a good reason to side with them. There... has to be more to this story. And I don't even know who you are!"  
Heinz shook his head and took a full step back.  
Contrary to what he might have expected, the villain let him.  
Heinz prepared himself to make his case about how this was all new to him and he was still trying to figure out not only time travel but himself as a person; but that was all wiped away from his thoughts as the figure beat him to the next word.  
"Oh don't you?" He said with an elegance that could only come from practice.  
He slowly pulled down the scarf from over his nose and mouth and pulled back his dark hood to reveal his face.  
"I'm sorry. What?!" Orton said exclaimed, looking up from his notes in shock. He nearly dropped his pencil and paper.  
Before him stood... himself. The figure was dressed differently, but wore the same coat as Orton. The biggest difference was the age. This Orton had to be in his 40s, maybe even 50s, but he still had the same good-natured composure and curious eyes that were staring back at his counterpart.  
"Wow. I didn't see /this/ coming." Heinz said.  
The older Orton folded his hands together before pointing his forefingers directly to Heinz.  
"Well it's quite the story really, but in summary?" His hands fell to his coat pockets nonchelantly but were occasionally raised again for emphesis. "The events that happened earlier today all happened to me in my past except when we were in 1832- we escaped before the Bureau found us. This time around /I/ gave them a tip as to your location and intercepted the trip. Originally, we returned to the time you picked me up- 1965- to recharge the machine and work on some alterations so you didn't get lost or trapped in the time stream on your way back to your own time." He spoke with a professional flow that could mesmorize any audience. His words eloquent and articulated without hesitation,  
"From the experience of my own past- once the machine was finished, you left. But you returned often with a new idea of somewhere to go and need see all the world had to offer. We saw all 8 wonders of the world in their prime and had amazing adventures that helped inspire the story arcs my writing needed! But then I became incredably busy with Doctor Zone and you stopped wanting to visit places and became busy organizing the Time Bureau. It felt like things had worked out and I really was content with it, but once the show ended I was left with a gap for my creativity. When the show ended, I was decently well off finacially- I could have easily retired- but dispite how demanding the job had been, I was left missing the danger, the action, /being Doctor Zone/!"  
He had been pacing but now gestured to the room around them with humble showmanship.  
"Now I finally, once again, run the show! I have something to be excited about again."  
The Orton who had arrived with Heinz looked down in defeat. "All this time I've been looking for this destiny, and... I end up here? I end up opposing you?"  
His distant eyes stared at the inventor for some kind of answer but Heinz could only stare back in confusion.  
"Nooo.... That can't be right." He attempted a smile but it just hurt.  
"How could we end up being opponents? We're friends?"  
Heinz scrambled for answers but, luckily, something in his mind clicked. His confidence returning,  
"I only have one nemesis and it isn't you. Don't you understand?" He beamed a bright smile.  
"What are you talking about?" The older Orton grumbled.  
Doofenshmirtz stepped forwards up to the metaphorical plate.  
"You've been searching for your path just like I have! You've been trying to do it all yourself! But it's only made you more miserable because you don't know who you're meant to be. You were Doctor Zone but it wasn't enough because once it was over you felt like you were alone again."  
"What are you talking about? I did all this for the adventure! That's what I love!" The older Orton spoke, convinced of his truth.  
Heinz shook his head.  
"No, it's the inspiration you love! In your timeline, we went on adventures but /you/ inspired people with those same stories with your show! Take it from someone who felt alone for most of their life- /sharing your experiences/ is what you want. Of you want other people to be able to have amazing adventures like you had: you need to find the future me, Professor Time! Of you think he turned away from you then ask him /why/! If he's anything like me, he'll apologize!"  
Heinz slammed a palm softly against his face.  
"Dummkopf! And I need to get back and apologize to someone as well!"  
The older Orton stared him down in a cold glare for several seconds before turning away.  
"You're trying to change things you haven't even lived yet. Just tell me how to make our own time vehicles and I'll let you go. I'll even take you back to your respective times so the Bureau doesn't catch you again."  
"That's a nice offer and all but /make your own/? I've only built the one so far and it nearly failed TWO trips in!" He defended, "And then there was the whole thing with it being hit by a car-"  
"Then you can figure it out!" The older Orton snapped coldly. He turned to his guards,  
"Take him to the lab and don't let him out until he does what I asked."  
"Whoah what?!" Doofenshmirtz questioned as he was all but dragged away by two of Orton's guards. He continued to try to rationalize with this different Orton.  
"You don't need to keep stealing! It won't get you anywhere! Just talk to Professor Time! I bet he'll be able to help you not only make your own machines, but help /you/! Whoah hey! I can walk! Stop pulling so much!"  
The younger Orton finally turned to his counterpart but the older one only turned away even more, his mood ruined by Heinz's words.  
"Make yourself at home." He told his less experieces counterpart flatly, "I can arrange for you to be taken to your own time whenever you wish."  
And with that he walked away.  
-

"Alright. Savanna and Brick have been scanning for any odd energy signatures in the city in 2175 while they've been stuck at the Bureau for a check up or something. She said there are many wierd levels at this location-"  
Dakota explained, looking around for any kind of hidden enterence. "but I don't see anything."  
"Is there any way they're simply wrong?" Cavendish replied, looking around the empty park to no avail.  
Perry wished he could take in all the sights of 2175, but he decided he would much rather do it once he could rest easy knowing that Heinz was alright.  
Being the master at secret lair enterences he was, it didn't take long for him to find a doorway to a staircase hidden just under the grass at the foot of a small tree. The somewhat hallow sound it made when he walked over the area gave it away.  
"Great job!" Dakota cheered, assisting him with pulling open the hatch.  
Perry put a finger to his lips and carefully lowered himself down to the first large step.  
He gestured for the pair to stay where they were while he scoped out the lair.  
Reluctantly, Cavendish agreed and Dakota flashed him a smile and thumbs up before Perry decended the steps with all the stealth of a secret agent.  
The stairs lead out to a large room filled with people. Luckily for him, they were all very deeply immersed in their work.  
Perry slank around the corner and ducked behind a row of small plants. They were planted in a long row with a defined pattern, one bigger plant that looked like a very small tree, 3 small newer ones, and repeat.  
His only option was to crawl behind them and follow the ever-so-thin path between them and the wall until he could find Doofenshmirtz.  
He was nearly spotted by one of the oddly chipper pirates watering the plants, but they seemed too distracted by a song stuck in their head to notice him.  
To his annoyance, he got drenched but luckily not caught.  
The row lead him down to the edge of the room where a large dip dropped him down to an empty set of tracks along which a few large vehicles were parked. They looked sleek yet ominus as he passed them. He eyed a large dent in the front of one of them inparticular before continuing through the large tunnel.  
"Do you think he's alright?"  
Perry rolled under the nearest SUV and watched as three pairs of shoes stroll past him.  
"I'm not sure. I don't think /anyone/ had guessed it would go down like that."  
Perry's heart sank. The small group of workers seemed genuinly worried for someone and he begged the subject not to be Heinz.  
"Yeah that Professor Time-to-be really stuck it to him! I guess he was always been a little headstrong." One of them praised.  
Perry rolled onto his back and let out a coo of a sigh. He should have known not to worry. His nemesis was a tough as they come.  
Once he was sure the trio had passed, he looked out and made a break towards a stronger light from one side of the tunnel. Just like the platform he had entered on, the tunnel must be connected to another!  
He pressed against the wall until he got to the edge and then jumped up to grab the edge of the platform.  
On it looked like a huge automotive shop. Tables lining the walls were filled with scrap parts or tools and in the middle sat two different vehicles. They seemed innocent enough, but with parts of them dismantled he could clearly see the fuel tanks containing the odd green liquid of time juice.  
Perry immediately knew this was not a good sign. He pulled out a small camera from his hat and took a picture before returning it back to where he had gotten it.  
"Perry the Platypus?" A firmiliar voice suddenly recognized him.  
Perry recognized the owner back and turned around to see none other than Heinz Doofenshmirtz standing before him with a bucket of tools in his hands.  
"What are you-? How did you get here? Wait- no- let me start from the beginning-"  
Heinz set down the container on the ground and cleared his throat. He kneeled down to Perry's level.  
"I'm so sorry I left without you! And not just because it didn't turn out like I expected. I should have waited because you've always supported me and I should have made sure you knew that I couldn't have done it without you and-"  
Perry hurried towards him and hugged him, his small arms tightly around the scientists shoulders. Heinz relaxed and put his hands very gently on Perry's back.  
"You're going to be upset you stifled this apology." He joked. "I didn't even get to the part where I formally thanked you. I had it all planned out in my head."  
Perry chuckled lightly, his heart nearly about to burst in happiness and relief.  
"After all this time /that/ was the joke you choose to laugh at?" Heinz chided him light-heartedly.  
Perry suddenly pulled away at the sound of footsteps and looked down the tunnel.  
Doofenshmirtz followed his gaze and quickly grabbed the container he had been holding and hurried up to the platform before reaching back down to pull Perry up. Heinz ushered him under one of the tables and slid some of the boxes in front of him so no one would see.  
The worker passed by without sparing them any mind.  
"Alright so you missed quite a bit but basically Orton and I got captured by some people who work at some place everyone calls 'The Bureau', and then the people here took Orton and I from /them/ and brought us /here/ and want me to make them their own vehicles so they can't be tracked and arrested by the Time Bureau agents."  
He thought it over for a moment.  
"Oh, and also it's all run by an older version of Orton Mahlson who has a grudge against the future me and also apparently I end up appointing the leader of 'The Bureau' but I even /I/ don't know who it is! Apparently no one does and they only go by a title which is weird because I must trust who ever it is a /lot/ but I have no idea who it could be! The older Orton said everyone only knows them as Agent P but the only person I could think of who I could trust with something like /the company that controls all time travel/ would have to be like... you-"  
He glanced back to Perry who was staring at him with incredably wide eyes.  
"What is it? Are you okay?"  
He stared at Perry, mid-gesture to nothing, and blinked at least twice before the thought suddenly struck him.  
He started to say words Perry didn't know the meaning of and he could only guess that the man was swearing in his native language.  
Finally he stopped and looked his nemesis dead in the eyes.  
"Do you run the Bureau of Time Travel?!"  
-

"Should we go after him?" Cavendish asked impatiently.  
"Not yet." Dakota said halfheartedly as he attempted to do a magic trick with a deck of cards. He frowned as he pulled the wrong one yet again.  
Cavendish's temperal locator began to ring.  
"Dude, you have to answer it." Dakota told him. "The Bureau must already know we're back in 2175. Ignoring them is just going to get us in more trouble!"  
"I know!" Cavendish said anxiously. "But once they find out we messed up the timeline of Professor Time we're done for!"  
Dakota sighed, took the device, and answered it.  
"Hello?"  
Whoever was calling immediate hung up.  
"Well that was... weird...."  
Suddenly a text page pulled itself up on the screen.  
"And that's even weirder." Dakota commented.  
The messenger had no photo, but the name had already been filled in.  
/C E O/  
"It can't possibly be him, can it?!" Cavendish asked nervously.  
Dakota shrugged. "I have no idea, I've never met 'em."  
A message appeared.  
"Explain yourselves."  
A small window in the corner opened so the two could see themselves as they were being seen, but not see the viewer.  
"Well that's rather ominous." Dakota commented.  
"Be honest." Another message read.  
"Uh. Okay." Dakota said in thought.  
"So it all started a while back with plant monsters tried to take over the world-"  
"I know. Skip ahead." Another message appeared.  
"How could he know?" Cavendish asked, baffled.  
No message appeared.  
"Well, he is the CEO." Dakota waved the fingers of one hand dramatically. "He sees aaaalllll."  
Cavendish straightened his tie.  
"Right, well. Earlier I got a message from my future self that Doofenshmirtz was taken by time pirates. Actually, hang on a sec."  
He pulled out a different device and quickly typed something out and sent it.  
"There we go. Okay."  
He pocketed the device again.  
"Sorry, where was I? Oh yeah. Okay so I realized that this was probably our fault because we convinced him to build a time machine before the official date and that the time pirates probably wanted to use that to their advantage, so they kidnapped him and this other guy we know- Orton Mahlson. That's what we think anyways. And then we learned all of that to be true when Savanna and Brick y-yunno" he stammered. "They're two other agents, and they told us that the pirates probably took them here so... well here we are."  
Another message appeared.  
"The pirates want free range?"  
"I would assume so, I guess I haven't exactly asked them though." Dakota rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.  
"Why are you standing around?"  
Yet another message. It was difficult to assume tone but the pair almost wanted to say it seemed impatient.  
"Well we brought one of Professor Time's most trusted comrade with us. He went in ahead of us and said to wait-" Cavendish began to explain.  
A fast message.  
"Who?"  
"It may sound strange but Perry the Platypus. We believe him to be one of the Professor's most trusted friends."  
They tensely waited to be scolded but no response came.  
"Uh... Chief?" Dakota asked. He thought for a moment he had been hung up on but the mirror icon remained in the corner of the screen.  
"Sir?" Cavendish called.  
"It might not be a sir." Dakota whispered to him loudly.  
"Apologies! Chief will do just fine."  
Still nothing.  
"What would you like us to do next?" Dakota asked directly.  
It must have snapped the person on the other side out of their haze because a response appeared quickly.  
The videochat disappeared and the other messages were erased until only the newest one remained.  
"I'll alert Professor Time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thinking of Doof swearing in his native language might be one of my fav ideas  
> And I got to reveal who was being rebellious to the Bureau this chapter too lol  
> Btw I hope this slightly aged version of Orton doesn't seem too ooc, I just wanted to introduce something plausable but also pretty unexpected, yunno? Plus he's my son and I love writing him. I was hoping to make some fanart too bc his outfit is p cool in my head but idk we'll see what happens  
> Well regardless, please enjoy!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for some sweet sweet character developement.

Orton watched from the corner of his eye as his younger counterpart bravely approached him. He walked with determination and a notebook effortlessly in hand. He looked confident but his older counterpart knew that a large part of it was his skill at acting. Nonetheless, and despite much experience, his older self was impressed.  
He was already straying from the path of his younger self and he wondered how time would heal it.  
"I assume you're here to try and talk me out of my decisions but I assure you: my mind is made up."  
He kept his eye on the ever-shifting tunnel before him. He sat on a crate and watched time vehicles came and go as fast as he could blink.  
"May I join you?" His younger self asked.  
The more experiences of the pair simply tuned away. He brought one foot up to the edge of the crate and pulled his knew to his chest woth his arms round his folded leg. He rested his head on his arms and allowed his other leg to dangle over the side.  
His younger self simply sat on the ground.  
"I'm not here to try to convince you of anything." Orton said, clearly still thinking things through.  
His older self didn't reply, he simply pulled his hood back over his head.  
This didn't seem to discourage the other in the slightest.  
"And I don't think I want to know too many more things about my future either." He chuckled slightly.  
He looked up to his counterpart and somehow, it actually helped not to be able to see his face. It was almost as if this darker version of him was easier to accept the less they looked alike.  
"I just wanted to know why you do all of this. From what I know about stories, you seem to have become the villain... although I'm not yet sure if you are."  
His older self didn't turn to his younger version as he spoke, his voice slightly echoing off the tunnel before him, "The label doesn't matter. The fact is that Professor Time wants the Bureau to have the only means of time travel while I believe that as long as we are not altering things significantly, anyone should be able to time travel with the proper precautions."  
"Did you ever think that prehaps he was trying to accomplish the same goal per the Bureau of Time Travel?"  
Orton's younger self's words were met with silence. He hesitated but then continued,  
"Maybe if you just talked to him-"  
"Don't you think I've tried?" The rebel leader spoke, his words tired and heavy in the air. The sheer impact lingered there for a moment before disappaiting.  
"He's Professor Time. If he wanted to talk to me he would find a way. He established the Bureau so he must know that they're capturing the people who work with me. He's /choosing/ to ignore it."  
He sighed and continued,  
"But that's just the big picture. Personally, I believe I'm more upset that I don't feel the sense of accomplishment I had believed I would. Maybe Heinz was right...." he sighed. "Maybe I am alone."  
His words were heavy to the bright eyed writer who had yet to see and do so many amazing things. He wondered- for a brief moment- of his older self could be right. Of everything he was doing wasn't worth anything at all.  
But the worry went away the second he remembered why he started doing all this in the first place.  
He loved writing, his show was just starting to pick up, even if one day he would have problems; it wouldn't stop him from finishing his story and making it well worth the effort. His place was helping others smile and get through their own hardships. He couldn't forget that.  
He quickly scribbled down some notes.  
After a moment it seemed to catch his older self's attention.  
"What could you possibly be writing?"  
Orton held out the notepad and his older self took it and looked it over.  
"Not bad.... I think I remember some of this one."  
Young Orton smiled but his focus shifted as he suddenly noticed the shine of an aging watch on the other man's wrist.  
"I never actually stopped writing but it never seems as good as before. I don't know what happened." The older man replied, handing back the notepad.  
But the aspiring writer didn't take it back right away. His mind was too lost in thought.  
"What is it?" The hooded man asked.  
"Y-your watch." Orton said, still deeply lost in thought.  
"What of it?"  
The younger pulled up his own sleeve to find nothing there.  
"Heinz Doofenshmirtz took mine to fix the time machine. He said he would fix it and return it once we made it back from 1882."  
The figure in black nodded.  
"In my timeline he did. And he probably still will for you after all this is over."  
"That means that the watch's timeline has changed already, hasn't it?" He explained happily, "It's on a different path now but we're both still here so- correct me if I'm wrong, but that means things can still change. Your problem isn't set in stone and neither are we!"  
"What on Earth are you saying?"  
The aspiring writer stood up with more determination and focus than he had felt all day.  
"Let's change this story! We need to do something no one would expect. We need to approach the Bureau ourselves! We need to let Professor Time know that things need to change."  
The darkly-dressed man suddenly leapt up off the crate.  
"You're right! Once Professor Time finds out why we did what we did, we can propose a comprimise and convince him to change the rules so that non-Bureau agents time travel as well!"  
"We're brilliant!" They cheered in unison.  
-

Perry was shocked at this new information about himself but there wasn't time for that now. If they really were in the lair of the Time Pirates that Dakota had spoken of- who stole lost artifacts out of taste for adventure and sold them in thurst for profit- then they had to get out of there and let the professionals handle it.  
Perry didn't understand a lot about time travel but judging by recent events, constant alterations could not be a good thing. It was just a matter of time before something gave and- call it selfish- but he wanted to keep the universe intact.  
Perry chattered and pointed back the way they had came.  
Heinz's feet didn't move.  
"I agree we need to get out of here; but I'm worried about this future Orton. This whole thing started because he thought he felt empty without adventure so he tried to give other people a chance for adventure too! His heart is in the right place, he's trying to help other people, but I think... I think he's just lonely."  
Perry felt torn.  
On one hand he did sympathize, but on the other? Whether he really did run it or not, the Bureau of Time Travel was created to handle this kind of thing. Dakota and Cavendish had recruited him specifically to put a stop to this group of thieves. Even if Orton seemed to be a very nice guy, there has to be some kind of system to deal with these things and Perry felt they need to respect that.  
Heinz seemed to sense Perry's uncertainty and attempted to persuade him further.  
"Perry, we have to help," Heinz insisted. "We have to get Professor Time's attention!"  
Perry rolled his eyes deeply but finally let out a defeated sigh and nodded. His head told him to be loyal to the system like he was to Owca. It was who he had been trained to be nearly his whole life. But after spending time being Doofenshmirtz's nemesis and seeing him change into a better version of himself- well Perry had long since realized that things weren't always as black and white as he had once thought they were.  
Maybe this was one of those times.  
Hein's eyes lit up as he smiled and rubbed his hands together.  
"Perfect! Don't worry! I have just the plan."  
-  
"Heinz! We have an idea!" Orton hurried up to the scientist who was already drawing up blueprints on a large sheet of paper.  
Orton continued ecstatically,  
"We realized that the only way to fix this is to find Professor Time. He must not know what's happening and if we can draw him out, we can negotiate with him and by extention: the Bureau of Time Travel."  
"I'm way ahead 'a ya!" Heinz grinned.  
Perry climbed out from under the table and leap up to sit on top of it, he swung his small legd back and forth over the edge as he watched from next to Doofenshmirtz's paper.  
"All this time I thought I had to figure this out on my own," Heinz said in realization, not looking up from the paper, "I thought I had to prove that I was worthy of the friendlyness before it could be shown to me- in other words, I thought I had to become Professor Time before anyone could respect me like they respect him."  
He shook his head with a smile, "But I've had people- and especially platypuses- platy- I've had support this whole time!" He looked to Perry with an undying smile, "What I had to realize was that the support /I already had/ was enough. It was like when I tried to take over the Tri-State-Area."  
"You tried to take over the Tri-State-Area?" Orton asked in surprise.  
"Well yeah. I told you I used to be evil. What did you think I was trying to do?"  
Orton shrugged, unsure of how to respond. "Touché?"  
"Point is," Heinz continued as he scribbled furiously, "I thought that the power would earn me respect, that it would prove that I deserved what I had accomplished; but I couldn't have been further from the truth. Earning the respect of the people that mattered to me like my nemesis and my daughter were /and should/ have always been what mattered. And the people who supported me only grew as I attempted to make myself better: by joining Owca and began trying to make the /world/ better as well."  
He circled the title of his plan.  
"You don't have to do something incredable to prove you're worthy of being loved and supported. Being who you are and doing the best you can is what /will give you the ability/ to do something incredable!"  
Heinz set his marker down and picked up the page. He looked over it with pride and his two friends looked over it as well with soft smiles.  
Orton looked over the complicated mess of a plan before locking eyes with Perry. They shared a smile and came to the same conclusion: he had some very good ideas but his planning skills weren't necessarily the best. Orton turned to the inventor.  
"These are great ideas but how about you leave the writing to me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the ending I have planned will be satisfying enough for this story. Also I might combine some of the chapters because they feel really short. It was just easier to organize them that way but now I feel like they're rediculously short so idk.  
> I really hope you're enjoying this so far though. I worked really hard on it and maybe it's not my best work ever but it was really fun and I really want to see it through to the end.  
> Thank you for reading this far!!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cavendish and Dakota find out what's up.

"Perry! Where have you been? We've been so worried- wait what's happening?"  
Cavendish had already managed to psych himself out by the time Perry had returned to the empty lot above the rebel time travelers' underground headquarters. Dakota subtly rested one hand on his partner's shoulder to pull him back to reality.  
"What's the news?" Dakota asked the platypus much more calmly.  
Perry gestured for the pair to follow him back down into the underground bunker.  
Dakota shrugged and began to follow the small agent down the stairs but Cavendish wasn't so sure.  
"You can't be serious! Aren't the time pirates down there?"  
Perry wiggled a hand side to side in the air to undicate that the situation was iffy and no longer so easily defined by the title of "time pirates".  
"Good enough for me." Dakota attempted to convince his partner to join them.  
"No way. We aren't even suppose to be doing this but I agreed for the sake of Professor Time and everything he stands for. I refuse to-"  
Dakota shared a knowing look with Perry before giving the older man a confident smirk.  
"He's already down there."  
"Like I was saying, I refuse to wait any longer knowing that we could be of assistance to the Professor! Let's go!"  
Cavendish hurried past them and down the white staircase. Perry tipped his hat in thanks to Dakota who only chuckled a little before they hurried after Cavendish.  
Perry took the lead once they reached the bottom of the stairs and showed them through the main room and down through the large cylindrical tunnel to the right handside. After only a minute or so, they reached the next platform which homed the small labratory/auto-repair shop.  
"So what's the plan exactly?" Dakota willingly jumped in as they approached the raised stage.  
"I'm glad you asked actually." Heinz Doofenshmirtz replied, his mind focused elsewhere as he appeared out of seemingly nowhere to address the newcomers. His attention did catch on Perry as he passed the platypus to reach a box that was sitting amoung other supplies in the tunnel and gave him a nod of welcome. Perry casually returned it.  
"Hey Cavendish," Heinz greeted as he kneeled down and set a list he was holding onto a box so he could use both hands to open the lid and retrieve something from it.  
"Y-yes. At your service!" Cavendish nearly sumbled over his own words.  
Dakota rolled his eyes with a smirk and spared a smile to Perry who was at Doofenshmirtz's side with a small smile of his own. Cavendish was unbelievably weak to his knees when it came to anything even romotely related to his idol.  
The future Professor Time stood up again, a weird looking wrench and paper in one hand and something else tucked under the same arm.  
"Car keys," Heinz held out his free hand. A brease blew through the damp tunnel as if the inventor had summoned it specifically to catch his labcoat in a somewhat dramatic fashion.  
Without a second or even first thought, Cavendish quickly pulled his keys from his coat pocket and set them into his idol's hand, his fingers brushing over a little more than intended.  
Doofenshmirtz didn't seem to notice as he quickly closed his hand and swung it to a side pocket of his labcoat.  
"Thanks." He noted as he looked down to the list in his other hand, not even noticing Cavendish's contained excitement that the inventor's actions were making him become even more recognizable as Professor Time.  
The Time Pirates' leader- the older version of Orton Mahlson- walked past, but Cavendish and Dakota only recognized him as a criminal who they believed to have commited numerous crimes. His distinctive hood and jacket ironically gave away his identity to them, but only as a time traveler and not his actual self. They didn't know his name but they knew his face.  
Their jaws dropped as they watched Heinz casually pass their keys off to the mysterious figure.  
It was even enough to snap Cavendish out of his starstruck haze.  
"The devil?!" He swore in shock. It took him nearly three full seconds to compose himself enough to articulate a few more words, "You can't just- Professor- Doofenshmirtz- that's-"  
Dakota put a hand over his partner's mouth.  
"So what's up?" Dakota asked him.  
Heinz looked up and gave Dakota his full attention as he responded,  
"We're working on a way to get everyone's attention. The leader of the Bureau of Time Travel, the "Time Pirate" leader, and even Professor Time of we can. /We/ realized that /he/ must not realize that this is happening. But I'm sure he would help if he only knew about it! If we can get all the major players in to the same room they can come to some kind of an agreement! But it's not going to be easy. The only good news is that /anyone/ has to be more agreeable than my family." He joked half-heartedly, his other half focused on figuring out how to pull Orton's plan together, looking once again over the paper in his hand.  
1965 Orton had spent near the last hour or so writing draft after draft for their plan and he was near perfection- all that was left was to bring it to life. In his hand, Heinz had his part of the plan.  
"Wait the leader of the Bureau of Time Travel? We just talked to them!" Dakota suddenly realized, his voice still calm.  
Heinz nearly dropped the set of wrenches he was moving.  
"What? Who was it?"  
Perry felt as if he has been frozen in place. His eyes stayed fixed on the time agents.  
"Whoah, calm down. We don't know. Whoever it was only messaged us. And really short messages too."  
Dakota replied. Cavendish stepped forwards and added onto it,  
"He-"  
"The CEO." Dakota corrected him.  
"Apologies. The CEO asked us to explain ourselves so we did but, somehow, they already seemed to know everything that happened with the pistachions. And then we admitted that we brought Mister Perry with us and they assured us they would contact Professor Time."  
Perry gurgled questioningly. Heinz seemed to agree.  
"Yeah, what were they like?"  
"It was difficult to say." Cavendish said in deep thought.  
"The messages were short but concise and not threatening. For example, whoever it was simply asked us to be honest without explination and didn't seem to second guess us when we did tell the truth. However, whoever it was /did/ seem shocked to find out that we had recruited you, Perry, but there could have been another reason they hesitated to reply; we simply don't know."  
Heinz nodded.  
"Makes sense."  
"In what way?!" Cavendish demanded, his patience running out from so many unanswered questions.  
"No one knows the real name of the CEO or even their face! And you're not even Professor Time yet! How would you know who it was."  
"Because I know who I would appoint." Heinz grinned proudly, crossing his arms and turning a shoulder to Cavendish.  
The man let out a small gasp.  
Heinz simply continued, "But just make yourself at home! When this is all over I'll work something out so you don't get in more trouble for letting us borrow your time vehicle."  
Dakota shrugged.  
"No problem." Dakota pulled himself up onto a large wooden crate sitting in the tunnel. "We're probably in huge trouble either way. Need any help?"  
Doofenshmirtz smirked confidently. "I was hoping you would say something like that. How do you feel about stiring up a little trouble?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter but the next one will be the longest one in the story so that's a thing  
> Sorry this fic is kind of a mess but it was fun to write. There's only 2 chapters left but I think they're the most fun ones so far so I'm excited to finish editing them and finally completing this set.  
> As always, thank you so much for reading! It means so much to me that anyone would take the time to read something I wrote so if you smiled at least once then this was a success! Thanks for stopping by! <3


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the longest chapter but it's also my favorite so I really hope you enjoy it!  
> In case that's not enough incentive, it has a car chase in it.

"It looks like we're finally getting what we wanted. /You're/ changing people's lives for the better with your writing and /I'm/ finally figuring out how to help people with my inventions." Heinz commented as they geared up, minutes away from putting their master plan into motion.  
Heinz put batteries into a small remote and tested that it connected as Orton checked his costume on a large sheet of metal behind the inventor. It was the closest thing to a mirror he could find on such short notice.  
"It's not at all how I thought it would happen," Orton sighed, "but you're right."  
The writer smiled softly to himself. "And we couldn' have done it alone."  
"You've got that right." Heinz laughed. "But hey, maybe that's not such a bad thing!"  
Orton reflected on this- pun intended- as he looked himself over his disguised figure in the mirror.  
"Rather profound actually." He noted. "This entire time we've been so worried about finding our own way that neither of us really considered if we were meant to do it alone." He pulled out his notebook yet again and made a quick note. "Maybe-"  
A spring suddenly shot out of the back of the remote and bounced off the nearest wall. Orton chuckled as it fell into a bin with several other small springs and bolts.  
Heinz signed and loudly rummaged through the bin for the correct sized spring again.  
"Come on. This isn't even /remotely/ funny!" He said, barely able to make the pun before he began to laugh at his own misfortune.  
Orton breathed out a laugh.  
Heinz finished repairing the remote as Orton switched gears.  
"I've never played a villain before. Do you have any pointers?"  
Heinz shrugged and rested a hand on one of the cluttered tables while the other gestured through the air, still clutching the remote. "It's easier than being a hero, /that's/ for sure. You're going to do great! Just add a little of that tv-show flair!"  
Orton stood up a little taller in the mirror.  
"Flair. No problem, nothing to it. Just the possibility of this going horribly wrong...."  
Heinz held up a hand and flicked his wrist forwards on a nonchelant motion.  
"Even if it does, the rest of us will bail you out. I've been blown up at least a dozen times- so I'm sure you'll be fine."  
Orton spun around, "You /what/-"  
He was cut off by Perry climbing the stairs to the labratory platform they were on and making his signature noise.  
"Everyone's ready?" Heinz asked.  
Perry nodded.  
"Well then, I guess we'd better get going!" The scientist replied chipperly.  
Orton leapt from the platform dramatically, his coat catching the air as he did so. He spoke in a low yet dramatic voice as he straightened up.  
"It's showtime."  
"Yes! That is exactly the character you need!" Heinz called happily after him, "You're doing great!"  
Orton turned back and gave the others a small wave, his entire vibe retreating quickly back into his usual polite and down-to-earth mannor.  
"Thank you!" He smiled, "I just wanted to test it out!"  
-

It was well into the night by the time everyone and everything was in place; but once it was, no one had any doubts as to their part in the production.  
The younger Orton patiently awaited his cue behind a large tree at the edge of a nearby and now-empty park. He stood boldly, dressed in his older self's clothing and shrouded in shadow. A large hood hid his head and the tip of his face while a carefully patterned scarf kept him covered from nose to chest. In the dim of night, it would be difficult for /anyone/ to recognize him instead of his older counterpart.  
Deep down he was nervous, but something about his firmiliar coat and well-aged watch from his father put his mind at ease as he got into character.  
"Someone who's been wronged." He whispered to himself. "Someone who is looking for the thrill of adventure but finds their joy in the happiness of others."  
It felt something lighten deep within himself. He took a deep breath. "I only want what I believe is right."  
He saw a light flash past across the ground before him like a child would watch the passing of car lights onto their bedroom wall at night. He looked around to see that it was not one of the other two invited guests of honor but a pair of simple-minded Time Bureau agents here to take in the person they believed to be the leader of a group of time traveling thieves. How unfortunate for them.  
Orton Mahlson turned with a swing in his step, so it seemed that he could have only appeared from the shadows themselves. Each pace was taken meaningfully as he walked towards them. He spoke with the eloquence of someone with more credentials than he currently did. He even managed to contain his surprise at the agents firmiliar faces.  
Before him were Savanna and Brick; assumably here to redeem themselves from losing he and Heinz the first time around. He made sure his surprise didn't betray him.  
"Why hello, nice of you to drop by!" Orton greeted them with as polite of a tone as he could, the scare they had given him still fresh in his mind. But that wasn't who he was. In this persona, he was only against the Bureau on principle.  
"No games." Brick announced boldly. "We were sent by the CEO himself."  
"You know what he wants." Savanna siad to him, a sharp edge to her voice.  
Orton smiled to himself, not that either of the agents could see it.  
Step one of his plan had been to have Dakota and Cavendish call the CEO and falsely inform them that the Time Pirates had taken their vehicle. They were also to say that they currently had hold on the to-be Professor Time and his associate, but most importantly that the so-called 'pirates' were willing to negotiate.  
Unfortunately- and as expected- the Bureau sent two brutes to arrest them instead.  
Well it was a good thing that Orton had prepared for this.  
"Yes, I do know what he wants. The vehicle belongs to us now but I'm more than willing to return your precious Professor Time to his normal time stream /if/," he stolled a bit closer and raised a dramatic finger, "you hear me out and agree to comprimise with me and my associates. Your director will then see that this was the only possible way to get the needed attention on this matter."  
"We will do no such thing!" Savanna snapped at him.  
Brick joined in as well, "The Bureau will never bend to your will!"  
Orton sighed and gave a stiff-armed shrug.  
"I never asked it to! All I want is to speak to your director!"  
The pair closed in on him but Orton made a concious effort to stand his ground.  
"How about a show of good faith, and you call your supervisor and tell them to join us?"  
He asked with great calmness.  
He gestured one hand over to a car parked not far from where they all stood. The pair stopped to follow his direction.  
The window rolled down to reveal Heinz Doofenshmirtz, tied in a comedially great amount of rope.  
"See? He's fine!" Orton explained, completely unphazed. "So what do you say? Give your boss a call?"  
Brick shook his head. "Not a chance!"  
Orton made a small gesture and the car window rolled back up. There was the loud growl of an engine before the car's tires spun and sent the car speeding up the road.  
"Why you-!"  
Savanna sprinted back to her and Brick's own vehicle but the large man instead hurried towards Orton as if to somehow apprehend him.  
Orton kept his feet firmly on the ground as the top-heavy man approached. He simply pulled his hood back and lowered the scarf over his face. He smiled politely at the muscular agent without a care.  
"Surprise. I'm just an actor." He explained innocently.  
Brick grunted angrily before hurrying back to the car and getting into the passenger seat. There was the sound and mild smell of burning rubber as Savanna hit the gas and raced after the car containing the future Professor Time.  
Orton smiled to himself under the dim haze of a single streetlight above him.  
He listened to the sound of scretching tires echoing through the city streets as he turned away fron the action.  
"Well that certainly went well."  
He returned the dark hood to its place over his head and began to walk towards the location of the next phase of their plan.  
-

"Who taught you how to drive?!" Heinz said in shock, tumbling across the small back seat as Dakota skidded the car around yet another corner, the sound of screetching tires loud in the night air.  
The inventor attempted to unravel himself from the rope he had used to convince the Time Agents he was a hostage- but between the mess of rope and the unsteadyness of the vehicle- he was having a difficult time doing so.  
Heinz stumbled over a loop of the rope caught around one of his legs and fell into one of the side doors in an unelegant attempt to free himself.  
Dakota ignored his passenger and checked his mirrors to see if the others were still on his tail. Unfortunately for him, they were closing in not far behind. Their bright headlights reflected angrily in his left wing mirror.  
"Hold on!" Dakota warned before sharply turning the wheel and nearly drifting around a large building. The large loop soon set him back down the same near-empty city street; completely passing behind Brick and Savanna before speeding off in the opposite direction.  
He bought himself even more time as the agrivated pair was forced to make a large u-turn in order to continue the persuit.  
Dakota took advantage of this and-once his vehicle was out of sight- he made a carefully calculated time trip to drop off his passanger for the final stage of their plan before returning himself to the moment he left and continuing the chase.  
He only had to buy his friends about another minute or so but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.  
He raced along the path of streetlights and cut through the parking lot of a closed mall- due to the late hour- with a smile.  
"And Cavendish said all that Grand Theft Auto was an outdated waste of time," he scoffed to himself with a smirk no one else had the pleasure of seeing. He had clearly been enjoying himself the entire duration of the plan.  
He made his way back towards the park but he knew that the agents on his tail had already lost their sense of direction in all the turns he took. They were still too focused on saving the future Professor Time that they believed was in his car to take any notice as to their location.  
-  
Savanna drove the course like a trained professional. This mission not only mattered immensely to the Bureau, but it mattered to her and Brick. They needed to prove themselves again and get back into good graces with their agency after loosing the other two rogue time travelers, whether they were who they said or not.  
Savanna didn't care about who they were or where they were from and she was confident Brick didn't either. They only cared that they fulfilled the request of the Bureau they had placed their faith in. Even if there was a mix up, they believed wholeheartedly that the Bureau would straighten it out and they had no problem with that.  
The car in front of them sped through the city streets and made a sharp left turn.  
Stealing a Bureau sanctioned time vehicle, reckless endangerment, kidnapping; Savanna was racking up the charges she would put into her report once this was all over and they were not looking good for whoever was behind all this- or rather in front of them.  
"This is rediculous!" She said through her teeth as the other vehicle tried to shake them off their tail yet again. She lost her eye on the car for a moment.  
"Where did they go?!" Brick said in confusion.  
"I don't know but they have to be here somewhere!"  
She drove in the direction she had seen the car but there was nothing. Had the driver time jumped? If they had, this could be very bad for their search.  
Suddenly the loud sound of scretching tires yet again echoed along the buildings and to Savanna's relief, they turned to see the streetlights reflect over the aged roof of the car yet again.  
"Over there, hurry up!" Brick stated the obvious.  
"I know!" Savanna replied, nearly putting the petal to the metal in persuit of the other time vehicle.  
Suddenly the car stopped and swerved onto an empty area of grass. It slid to a stop, leaving a path of dirt in its wake.  
Savanna wondered what had happened. Perhaps the vehicle was running out of gas or had overheated? Or maybe the driver had just lost control. Either way, she wasn't going to wait there and do nothing.  
"Get out of the vehicle!" Brick called as he and his partner raced over to the unfortunate prize of their latest hunt.  
Brick opened the back door to find... nothing?  
"Sorry guys." They were stunned to see none other than Dakota turned to look at them from the front seat, no real apology in his voice. If anything his apology was only a taunt and the agents recieved it as such.  
"What is all this?" Savanna asked, exasperated beyond belief. She had just raced through the city avoiding parked cars and orange barrels, all in the persuit of finding a possible criminal, only to end up with Dakota's stupid smile? No. This would not fly with her.  
She was all but about to go off on Dakota when a bright light suddenly flashed behind them.  
They turned to see a new time vehicle that Doofenshmirtz must have built appear before them. It was a more personal device like the one he had seen his older self use in the future, but this one seemed to be tailored for the older version of Orton Malhson. It had three large lights on the top and the paint job was green with some orange and white highlights. It fit two people comfortably and possible a few others standing behind the main bench, on which the two versions of Orton Mahlson sat.  
The aspiring writer picked up from 1965 had changed back into his regular clothes while his counterpart wore the same coat but accompined with darker clothing, a dark hood, and a scarf. Next to each other, the resemblence was obvious but two actually appeared quite differently and could not easily be mistaken for the other without prior knowledge. The younger's movements were more energentic but limited while his more experienced counterpart moved with a specific efficiency and poise- almost as if every move was deliberate. But he also kept his face hidden as if he was still not completely comfortable before his audience.  
They stepped out of the vehicle in graceful unison. Another pair- Cavendish and Doofenshmirtz himself- also appeared from behind a large tree a few steps away.  
Both pairs approached the two agents with confidence.  
Doofenshmirtz was the first to address him, using the dramatic tension they had created to mix in his usual vibe of an evil monologue.  
"Goth Orton, would you like to handle the explination?"  
Doofenshmirtz deferred to the darkly-dressed Orton.  
"Yes I- wait what?" He began elegently but then ruined the moment as he got caught up in what Heinz had refered to him as.  
"I'm not goth!"  
"You're not?" Doofenshmirtz replied in surprise, all tension now gone from the moment.  
"But you're dressed like my daughter's friends would, how are you /not/ goth?"  
Orton's eyes narrowed slight from the mild shadow of his hood in the night air. "I'm not... I'm not quite sure how to respond to that."  
He hesitated for a moment and then shook his head.  
"Nevermind that. Heinz, would you mind?"  
A brease blew through the empty park as the inventor reached into his pocket to produce a rectangular remote. He pressed the button and suddenly the area where Savanna and Brick stood frozen in time. The wavering grass in the wind stopped in place, every blade suspended. The two agents looked down in surprise.  
"We can't move our feet!' Brick said in shock.  
"Yeah I know," Heinz said casually, pocketing the remote, "It's called a trap. Now listen up."  
The leader of the so-called Time Pirates took a self-confident step forwards and attempted to recapture the suspence of the moment. He cleared his throat.  
"What happened is that we called your CEO to arrange a meeting, but /apparently/ they could only arrange to send a couple of thugs." He tossed out a hand dramatically before him. "These good people here," he then gestured around, "they took the time to listen to the change that I wanted and they agreed to help make it happen for the better of everyone. We hoped to set up a negotiation- to invite the Bureau of Time Travel's CEO and even Professor Time himself, so that I could present my case as to why I believe that the capabilities of time travel should be shared with more than just the agents who will blindly do whatever the Bureau asks of them; but that doesn't seem to have worked. I've tried to get their attention in the past, but they never wanted to listen. The Bureau only sent goons to capture fellow time travelers just because they were not agents blindly carrying out the Bureau's will. These fine people have heard what I had to say, and- together- we hoped to arrange a nice simple meeting at which us three influencial voices could solve all of this. We sent the invitation, but apparently no one wanted to show." He paused before adding, "Maybe now they will- now that we have you two as well."  
The strength of the moment seemed to silence the two agents before him- but not Dakota.  
"Maybe we should just call again." Dakota chimed in, ever unphazed. He stood on the opposide side of the vehicle, his arms resting on the roof of the small car as he spoke.  
Everyone looked to their partner- of whatever definition- in thought. The Orton Mahlsons to each other, Doofenshmirtz to Perry, Brick to Savanna, Dakota to Cavendish, and vice versa.  
They all seemed to agree as if to say "what's the worst it could do".  
Cavendish pulled out the temperal locator and dialed up the CEO's number on video call.  
"Hello sir- uh President... sir. Um." He stumbled. It took him a moment to find his confidence.  
"So sorry to bother you but- well this is difficult to explain in a short period of time but there are a lot of people here who agree that you need to meet with the leader of the Time Pirates on peaceful terms. He wishes to meet with you and Professor Time to resolve your differences and if I may be so bold, I strongly suggest you accept his offer this time."  
"Hey Cavendish, can I see that for a minute?" Doofenshmirtz asked.  
Cavendish nodded and passed it to him.  
Heinz immediately sat down, crosslegged on the grass, and Perry looked at the screen over his shoulder. The others were a little confused by this but no one batted an eye.  
"Hi, Time Bureau Leader Person. I'm not really sure how that works but listen, if you're who I think you are then we both know that you want to do what's best for everyone. I think you didn't know your agency was doing this but now is the time to fix it! If you come here with Professor Time you can fix things with.... Can I say your identity?" Heinz covered the device with one hand looked up to the older Orton.  
"Nah, I want to give 'em a bit of a suprise." He joked quietly.  
Heinz took his hand off the device and continued.  
"The Time Pirate leader. Which I have to say, sounds cool in theory but is kind of a cheesy name. They're not really like pirates at all."  
Perry made his noise and pointed back to the device before Heinz could get too far off topic.  
"Yes- right. Point is! Come down here to our time and location and we'll work this out! What do you say?"  
The other line hung up.  
Heinz stood up again and handed the device back to Cavendish.  
"Well, I guess we just have to wait and see if they show up."  
"I guess so." The branded thief replied.  
This really was what he wanted. He knew this was his one chance to put this conflict to rest and convince the Bureau to release his captured comrades; before thing escalated any further. But something within him worried that he would be ignored yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!!  
> Please remember to kutos if you enjoyed this and feel free to leave comments!! Even if it's just a keyboard smash it always means a lot to me!  
> I hope you have a great day! :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter my people!!  
> I actually finished sonething for once omg  
> I might go back and put in actual summaries at some point but I'm not very good at them so I guess we'll see.

"Alright so it's been about 5 minutes and since they have time travel, being late means that're just not coming- right?" The younger Orton commented, uncrossing his counterpart's arms so that he can get a decent look at his watch. The older counterpart rolled his eyes and reluctantly complied.  
"Possibly." Cavendish shrugged.  
Dakota sighed and rested his chin on the roof of the small car. After a mere second he let out a breath and layed his face against the cold metal.  
"I say 5 more minutes and then we order wings. I know of a great place that delivers." He suggested, his cheek still pressed against the car roof.  
"I'll chip in on that!" Doofenshmirtz shrugged.  
Brick turned to Savanna, "Unless we're leaving soon I'm going to go in on that as well."  
Savanna shrugged, leaned back against the same vehicle Dakota was. Both her and her work partner's feet were still pinned to the ground but they now acted as if it was the least of their worries. No matter the outcome, Savanna knew this amusingly rebellious group would have no reason to keep them there for much longer.  
"It's not like we have much of a choice. I just want to see how this plays out. Do what you want."  
Dakota finally picked his head up to and pulled out his wallet to see how much cash he had on him when a bright light suddenly unfolded before them. They all made some gesture to block the light with one arm or to turn away as to avoid it being blinded by the stunning view.  
It soon subsided, leaving an incredable and completely unique vehicle in its place. Before them was a stunning bright yellow convertable that had apparently been converted to a time machine. The engine purred for another moment before being turned off. There was only silence as the group's eyes each slowly adjusted until they could finally recognize the vehicle's passengers.  
Professor Time himself opened the driver door and took a bold step onto the grass, the door remaining open behind him as to let another recognizable figure step out.  
Professor Time wore an even more elegant suit than the last time anyone standing there had seen him. His gold and purple theme shone in even bolder colors. His jacket was an expensive-looking velvet texture and his vest matched a similar purple with gold-colored buttons that matched his bright yellow-gold shirt underneith. His purple hat was the same velvet material this time around and the same yellow trim matched his shirt perfectly. Even hispants had deep purple accents and the matching shoes tied the entire outfit together.  
At his side was Perry the Platypus with business attire of his own. Its colors matched his color sceme, a brown jacket over a blue shirt with an orange patterned tie. He even had small brown and blue pants with a belt that matched the stripe on his hat.  
The headlights from the car were just enough of a dramatic flair that Cavendish nearly fainted where he stood.  
"Hi guys!" Heinz greeted he and Perry's much more offical looking counterparts with a cheerful smile.  
Professor Time gave a kind of soft smile that really spoke volumes to everyone there. It was the smile of someone content- not worried or sad or suprised and not even nessesarily excited. He looked nothing but content to see everyone there and it was the kind of expression that said he would have lived in that single moment as long as he could if given the choise.  
He was a little more collected than his past-self but the enthusiasm was still there all the same.  
"Hello!" He replied to his past self before also addressing everyone else gathered in a semi-circle before them.  
Perry tipped his ever-present hat and they all returned the welcome, either in a nod or some other type of respectful formality.  
"We heard there was something important to discuss?"  
Professor Time spoke.  
"If I may," Cavendish piped in boldly, "shouldn't we wait for the Bureau's leader?"  
Everyone's eyes turned to him and he seemed to shrink away from the attention a bit.  
"I- I don't want to be rude." He added meakly.  
The more aged Perry leapt up to the roof of the vehicle he and Heinz had arrived in- the only noise the small tapping of his feet against the metal- and gave a small bow.  
Professor Time grinned in his usual goofy way.  
"Cavendish, this is the leader of the Bureau." Professor Time translated, in case it wasn't completely clear.  
Cavendish gasped.  
"By jove, my sincerest apologies, sir!"  
Cavendish tipped his hat and bowed slightly, profusely flustered.  
"Don't worry about it." Professor Time chuckled slightly. He rested one hand on top of the driver side door. Perry quietly took a seat on the edge of the car hood and looked in the same direction as Professor Time, who addressed his audience as if he were speaking for both he and his partner.  
"We admire all your enginuity and effort to get us here."  
"You're not upset? We lied to you both!" Cavendish found himself confessing.  
"Nah. It was too impressive for us to be upset." The professor laughed again.  
"Now who are we here to see?"  
The future Orton from their timeline stepped through the small croud, his face still covered by his scarf and hood so that he was not easily recognizable by the two newest arrivals.  
He stepped up before them and pulled back his hood and down his scarf.  
"Long time no see." The older Orton joked half-heartedly.  
He held out a hand for a handshake but Professor Time simply high-fived him.  
"I should've known it would be someone clever like you! It takes a lot to pull one over on this guy!" Professor Time jabbed a thumb over to to Perry.  
The platypus smiled and offered a fistbump which Orton Mahlson quickly accepted.  
Professor Time continued.  
"I heard some of your associates raided the Library of Alexandria before it was burnt down! You /have/ to tell me what you found!"  
The older Perry made his signature sound as if he were specifically telling the Professor not to get carried away.  
Professor Time digressed in response.  
"Yes, of course. We can talk about that over dinner sometime. First thing's first: we hear you need somethings fixed between you and the Bureau's time travelers. Perry the Platypus already /assured/ me that whoever has been labeling your friends as mere criminals will be fired and your friends will be released immediately. We're sure we can work things out with you on our side."  
"Th-thank you!" The older Orton replied in surprise.  
In a rush of emotion, he hugged Professor Time who simply chuckled and rested his hands on the other man's back. The Bureau's leader, Perry, smiled at them.  
-

The three soon took off but not before ordering Savanna, Brick, Dakota, and Cavendish to bring the younger Heinz, Perry, and Orton to the Bureau so they could be sent back to their own times.  
Heinz was sad to see their adventure coming to an end without knowing the definate conclusion, but maybe some things were better left open ended. The three had seemed pleased as they climbed back into Professor Time's gorgeous vehicle. The man himself had a pleased smile on his face and even Perry seemed to smile as Orton settled into the back center seat.  
Heinz knew the trio would figure something out and the future would be better for it. Yet he did wonder how these new events would change his own future.  
Back in his own timeline again, Heinz requested two things of the Time Bureau.  
"First of all, I think I'm going to take a break from this time traveling. It's a little touch-y. I don't want anyone to mess with things for the next 15 years. I don't think people are ready for this yet- but in 15 years I will have something put together." He explained to the B.O.T.T. agents with a smile.  
"And secondly, I need to make one last stop."  
Heinz found his prototype time machine in a museum of all places. He decided to leave it there, but did take back the near empty fuel tank. He brought it with him back to his building and took out the watch Orton had let him borrow earlier. He carefully washed it off and cleaned it out until it was as good as new.  
He almost expected there to be something cheezy engraved in it- as if it held some lesson they had learned, right there all along.  
But it didn't. It was just a simple wristwatch with a silver rim and a plain brown leather band.  
He found the rebellious future Orton Malhlson, who had dressed in all black and ran a secret organization of his own in an abandoned underground subway station in his own original timeline's distant future, up until now- stood there with a stylist 1960s style time vehicle of his own. This time, he wore a simple black hoodie and blue scarf that it nearly made him look like a normal person.  
"Who will you be now?" He asked, rather lightheartedly despite the gravitas of the question.  
Heinz shrugged as he stepped up to face the man.  
"I'm not sure yet! Knowing how things will turn out, I only know that I'll keep doing what I'm doing."  
Orton chuckled gently. "Yes, I think I like who you end up being as well. He has that 'je ne sais quo' you mentioned before."  
"Didn't I tell that to your counterpart?"  
Orton shrugged. "Maybe the timeline is already readjusting."  
Heinz pondered this and crossed his arms.  
"Actually that would make sense because since the timeline is so fluid it might just reshape you from the point that I changed things forwards so you might gain those memories to some degree now even though it was technically in your past!"  
Orton looked him over in mild confusion.  
"Yes. Right." He cleared his throat. "Well, I'd better be off. I have to get back and have a meeting with the future you and the Bureau when I get back to 2175."  
Heinz quickly held out an envelope.  
"Can you drop this off to the past version of you that I knew before?"  
Orton took it and flipped it over in his hands before nodding.  
"Anything else?"  
Heinz put a hand to his chin and squinted.  
"Actually yeah. How old are you? I knew you in like the 1960s when you were middle-aged but then you don't look all that much older and you live in 2175? How did that happen?"  
Orton considered this.  
"It's actually quite an interesting story but I'm not sure it's good for you to know much more of the future at this time."  
Heinz sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot. I'll see you around?"  
"Of course. All in good time."  
"Nice one." Heinz commented as the future Orton disappeared.  
-

Orton wrote furiously. He was the last scene of the episode and he knew this was something worth making. It had something funny, something dramatic, and a good message at the end of it all. He hoped it could inspire others to adventure and live life like he was now, living his dream, but he also found himself hoping for his audience to see the real story underneith all of that. The one about supporting your friends as family and how simply doing your best can be enough as long as you don't give up.  
"There's a letter for you." Someone knocked on the doorframe before tossing a small envelope on to his desk.  
He quickly finished up the section of writing before pausing to open the envelope.  
Inside, wrapped messily in bubblewrap, was his watch and a short note.  
"//I'm not sure what this new knowledge of our futures will mean for us, but like everything else: I guess it'll be an adventure. We just have to keep doing what we love and hope that we find our way. We should do this again sometime.  
~ Heinz Doofenshmirtz//"  
"I guess that's all we /can/ do." Orton commented to himself. He put the letter back into its envelope and set it into one of his desk drawers before turning back to his writing. He still had a lot of work to do.  
-

"Isn't there something we forgot to do?"  
Dakota asked his partner.  
"Like what?" Cavendish replied.  
"I don't know but I feel like it involved food." Dakota considered. "I just can't quite put my finger on it."  
Cavendish rolled his eyes.  
"Typical! Always thinking with your stomach. Unfortunately, I agree. We've missed a meal and I am quite hungry."  
Dakota sighed and gave a shrug.  
"That's probably all it is. Let's go."  
-

Perry gave Heinz a questioning look when he arrived back up to his lab. Perry was sitting on the counter, eyes fixed on the microwave timer for the popcorn despite the fact that Doofenshmirtz knew the platypus had been watching his meeting from the balcony. He was a secret agent after all.  
"I asked him to return Orton's watch back to 1965 around when I took it." He explained, crossing the room to load up the recording of a popular dramedy the two of them planned to watch.  
Once it was loaded up, he continued.  
"I asked for them not to bother with our timelines for the next 15 years unless it was an emergency. Time travel is fun and I'm happy that it ends up being such a big hit, but I'm not sure that's where I want to be yet."  
He chuckled, "All this time I wanted to be famous and popular but apparently things work out fine if it is invented later in my life so that will be the official release. I think I would rather ensure I'll be around for my daughter and I think Owca is handeling everything else just find for right now. Between my regular life as a parent and my life helping Owca and of course inventing and stuff; I have my hands full enough without fulfilling this third life as a national hero. I have time."  
Perry nodded and brought a large bowl of popcorn over to the couch where Doofenshmirtz was already sitting.  
"I'm still going to keep working, but for whatever reason I don't feel so much pressure now. I know what I'm doing."  
He tossed a piece of popcorn in the air to catch in his mouth but missed. It bounced off his nose and Perry caught it in mid-air with one small hand.  
He held it out to the scientist as if to offer for him to try again.  
Doofenshmirtz simply chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LAST CHAPTER WOW  
> THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME!!!  
> Please leave kutos or comment!! Don't be shy, I genuinly love comments! This took me a LOT of time so more than anything I hope you enjoyed it!  
> My motto is: if you smiled at least once then I did okay :)  
> I hope you have an amazing day!


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